THINGS   SEEN   IN    RUSSIA 


A    RUSSIAN    PEASANT    WOMAN. 


Many  of  the  Russian  peasant  women,  if  not  actually  beautiful,  are  exceed- 
ingly pleasant  looking.  Owing  to  the  constant  use  of  the  banja  (hot 
steam  bath)  by  the  peasants  they  are  very  cleanly  and  have  fine  white  skins. 


THINGS  SEEN   IN 
RUSSIA  - 


BY 

W.  BARNES  STEVENI  ^ 

»  > 
PROFESSOR  OF  ENGLISH  IN  THE  COLLEGE  OF  PETER  THE  GREAT 

FOR  TEN  YEARS  ST.  PETERSBURG  CORRESPONDENT  FOR  "  THE 
DAILY  CHRONICLE"  AND  OTHER  ENGLISH  PAPERS 


WITH    FIFTY   ILLUSTRATIONS 


NEW  YORK 

E.  P.  BUTTON  AND  COMPANY 

31  WEST  TWENTY-THIRD  STREET 

1913 


TO    MY    BROTHER 

OSCAR  STEVENI, 

OF    ST.    PETERSBURG    AND    CRONSTADT 


252742 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER 

I.  INTRODUCTION 

II.  ST.  PETERSBURG 

III.  How  THE  GREAT  RUSSIANS  LIVE      -     103 

IV.  WHITE-STONED  Moscow  -     14-1 
V.  LITTLE  RUSSIA  THE  BLESSED  203 

VI,   KIEFF  -  -  -  -     239 


vii 


LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS 

A  Russian  Peasant  Girl  -  Frontispiece 

PAGE 

Russian  Troika  -  -  -  12 

A  Russian  Coachman     -  -  15 

A  Group  of  Russian  Peasant  Women    -  -  21 

Russian  Peasant  Hawker  -  25 

Russian  Peasant  teaching  his  Boy  to  read  -  29 

Russian  Newspaper-Seller          -  -  35 

Officer  of  the  Gendarmes,  or  State  Police  -  39 

Peasant  Women  of  Little  Russia  -  43 

Russian  Hawker  selling  Toys    -  -  49 

Winter  Scene  in  a  Russian  Village        -  -  53 

Peasant  selling  Brooms  and  Brushes     -  -  57 

The  Winter  Palace  of  St.  Petersburg    -  63 

Arch  of  the  Foreign  Office  at  St.  Petersburg    -  67 


List  of  Illustrations 


PA  UK 


Russian  Equipage  and  Troika    -  -     71 

Pavilion  of  Alexandrina,  Tsarskoe  Selo  -     77 
A  Fountain  in  one  of  the  Pompeiari  Gardens 

at  Peterhoff                                      -  81 

Interior   of  one   of  the   Pompeian  Villas  at 

Peterhoff     -  85 

Peasants  carting  away  Ice  from  the  Neva  -      91 

Droshki  and  Driver      -  95 

The  Nevsky  Prospect  -  99 

Russian  Peasant  and  his  Family  -     105 
Great  Russian  Peasants  returning  from  Work     109 

Women  Haymaking     -  -     113 

Peasant  Women  •     119 

Returning  from  Haymaking    -  123 

Errand-Boy  and  Knife-Grinder  127 

A  Russian  Market        -  133 

Cossack  Horsemanship  138 

The  Hermitage  139 

White-Stoned  Moscow  145 
View  of  the  Kremlin  and  Tower  of  Ivan  the 

Great  -     149 
x 


List  of  Illustrations 

PAGE 

Gateway  to  the  '  <  Ketai-Gorod  "  153 

The  Virgins'  Convent,  near  Moscow    -  159 

Interior  of  the  Cathedral  of  the  Saviour  165 

The  Ancient  Walls  of  the  Kremlin     -  171 

Cathedral  of  Basil  the  Blessed  175 

Beautiful  Gardens  and  Walls  of  the  Kremlin  -  179 

The  Bell-Market  at  Nishni-Novgorod  -  -  185 

Winter  "Kibitka/'  or  Covered  Sledge  -  191 

A  Primitive  Plough      -  -  197 

Interior  of  the  Church  of  the  Nativity  of  the 

Holy  Virgin  201 

Typical  Russian  Church  at  Ooglitch    -  205 

The  Petroffsky  Palace  -  211 

The  ' '  Tsar-Kolokol  "  (The  Tsar  of  Bells)  217 

The  Tsar  Cannon  in  the  Kremlin        -  -  223 

Bridge  of  Boats  over  the  Oka  -  227 

A  Beautiful  Specimen  of  Old  Russian  Archi- 
tecture       -  -  231 

Procession  of  Russian  Priests  -  -  237 

The  Dnieper   and    the   Plain  of  Tukhanoff, 

Kieff  -  -  -  -  241 


A    RUSSIAN    TROIKA 

A  troika  means  three  horses  loosely  harnessed  to  a  sledge.  In  the  winter 
months,  when  the  ground  is  thickly  covered  with  snow,  one  of  the 
most  delightful  and  invigorating  ways  of  travelling  is  in  a  sledge 
drawn  by  three  swift  horses  harnessed  in  tho  troika  fashion. 


Things  Seen   in  Russia 


CHAPTER  I 
INTRODUCTION 

DE  TOCQUEVILLE,  in  the  early  part 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  predicted  a 
future  for  Russia.  "  Two  great  races  exist  in 
the  world,'1  he  said,  "  which,  setting  out  from 
different  points,  clearly  strive  towards  one 
aim.  These  two  races  are  the  Russians  and 
the  Anglo-Americans.  Both  the  one  and  the 
other  grew  up  in  the  dark,  at  a  time  when 
the  minds  of  people  were  turned  to  home 
problems.  The  Russian  and  Anglo-American 
races  suddenly  emerged  in  the  first  rank  of 
nations,  and  the  rest  of  the  world  learnt  of 
their  birth  at  one  and  the  same  time.  How- 
ever different  their  points  of  departure  and 
their  historical  progress,  both  of  them  are 


Things  Seen  in  Russia 

destined  by  Providence  for  great  roles  as 
world-towers." 

The  old  culture  of  Varangian  and  Byzan- 
tine Russia  was  temporarily  swamped  after 
the  Oriental  invasions.  It  disappeared  for  a 
time,  and  it  is  only  in  recent  years  that 
u  the  Holy  Land  of  Roos  "  has  begun  again 
to  advance,  with  European  ideals  as  her 
incentive.  With  armies  of  Tartar  and 
Mongol  horsemen  sweeping  over  the  Steppes 
like  so  many  swarms  of  locusts,  there  is  little 
wonder  that  Russia  had  to  give  up  to  war 
what  might  have  gone  to  art  and  literature — 
and  "  civilization  T  The  incessant  attacks 
by  the  Tartars  had  to  be  repelled  before 
Russia  could  rise  again ;  the  blood  which 
flowed  on  both  sides  marks  the  strenuous 
periods  of  early  Muscovite  history. 

Everyone  has  heard  of  Cronstadt,  the 
gloomy,  forbidding  fortress-town  or  town- 
fortress,  in  which  the  writer  resided  seven 
years,  and  nobody  likes  it.  Indeed,  it  gives 
the  imaginative  "  the  creeps  "!  Still,  as  the 
port  of  St.  Petersburg,  Cronstadt  cannot 
altogether  be  ignored.  The  Marine  Canal 


•  s.-srea*' 


,-^*»9^ 


RUSSIAN    COACHMAN    INFLATED    WITH    CUSHIONS. 

A  Russian  cabby,  or  isvostchik.  In  the  large  cities  of  Russia  there  is  an 
idea  current  among  the  rich  kooptzee,  or  peasant  merchants,  that  a^  fat 
coachman  speaks  well  for  the  master,  and  when  this  ideal  cannot  be  attained 
by  natural  means,  resource  is  had  to  artificial. 


Introduction 

connecting  it  up  with  Gutaeffsky,  an  out- 
skirt  of  the  capital,  is  a  beautiful  waterway 
in  itself,  one  which  makes  some  amends  for 
the  austere  surroundings  of  the  impregnable 
fortress. 

The  first  thing  to  strike  the  new  arrival, 
whether  in  Petersburg  or  Cronstadt,  is  the 
isvostcliik)  or  Russian  cabby.  New  York 
cabbies,  Paris  cabbies,  London  cabbies, 
dwindle  into  blurry  insignificance  alongside 
of  the  IsvostcTiik !  He  is  a  supreme  effort  on 
the  part  of  nature !  There  is  no  handy 
taximetre  to  check  his  barefaced  demands, 
and  only  a  mythical  police  tariff  to  price  his 
mileage.  It  is  a  part  and  parcel  of  his 
training  as  an  isvostchik  to  ask  for  double  his 
due.  That  he  does  not  get  it  paid  is  a  mere 
detail :  he  does  not  even  expect  to  succeed  in 
his  effrontery  !  Quite  the  contrary,  in  fact; 
for  if  he  were  to  succeed,  it  would  give  him 
violent  pangs  for  not  having  asked  for 
more  ! — and,  moreover,  should  he  succeed  in 
his  demands,  he  regards  his  fare  as  a  fool 
(dooraJc). 

Our  methods  and  ideas  should  be  cast 
17 


Things  Seen  in  Russia 

aside  on  reaching  Russian  soil ;  it  is  a 
country  apart — neither  East  nor  West,  North 
nor  South.  Perhaps  it  is  all  combined.  I 
sometimes  think  so.  The  national  maxim, 
"  Go  slowly  and  you  will  go  further," 
characterizes  the  temperament  of  the  people. 
A  shopkeeper  and  a  prospective  purchaser 
will  haggle  for  hours,  and  argue  over  a  deal 
which  would  take  five  minutes  to  settle  in 
England  or  America.  It  is  a  Russian  failing 
— the  waste  of  time,  or  the  disregard  of  haste, 
or  whatever  it  is  !  All  the  same,  the  Russians 
are  filled  with  excellent  points,  too,  and  not 
the  least  of  them  is  their  abounding  good 
nature  and  tolerance.  More  than  half  of  my 
life  has  been  spent  among  them,  and  to  this 
day  I  do  not  regret  an  instant  of  the  time. 
In  many  ways  they  are  large-hearted  and 
kindly.  This  applies  as  much  to  the  peer 
as  the  peasant.  There  is  a  strong  and  auto- 
cratic Government  to  rule  the  people  ;  there 
is  no  nonsense  or  meddling  with  politics 
allowed ;  but  whether  the  country  is  any  the 
better  for  that  I  will  leave  for  the  traveller 
to  find  out  for  himself.  Its  enormous  size  is 
18 


Introduction 

rarely  appreciated  by  the  English.  When 
it  is  remembered  that  the  Central  Govern- 
ment in  St.  Petersburg  controls  an  Empire 
which  extends  from  the  Baltic  in  the  West 
to  the  Pacific  Ocean  in  the  East,  to  the 
Arctic  Circle  in  the  North,  to  the  Caucasus 
Mountains,  Bokhara,  Persia,  Turkestan,  and 
Southern  Siberia  in  Asia,  there  is  no  room 
for  doubt  about  the  necessity  for  firm 
measures.  About  one  hundred  and  sixty 
million  people  claim  allegiance  to  the  Tsar, 
and  their  number  doubles  every  sixty  years. 
The  figures  are  stupendous,  but  accurate. 
There  are  no  less  than  eight  and  a  half  million 
square  miles  enclosed  within  the  vast  borders 
of  Russian  territory.  Forests,  rivers,  and 
the  rich  steppes  or  plains  (covered  witii 
millions  of  cattle,  horses,  sheep,  and  other 
animals),  go  to  make  up  the  giant  possessions 
of  Nicholas  II.,  "  the  Little  Father,"  as  his 
loyal  subjects  affectionately  call  him. 

Even  a  brief  journey  in  European  Russia 
will  take  the  traveller  through  a  variety  of 
climates  and  a  constant  change  of  scenery. 
In  the  North  there  are  the  dreary  stretches 

19  B 


Things   Seen  in  Russia 

of  tundra,  covered  in  summer  with  the  most 
beautiful  wild  flowers,  and  in  winter  with  an 
unyielding  crust  of  snow  and  ice  ;  and  in  the 
extreme  South  vineyards  and  tobacco  fields. 
In  the  northern  regions,  in  the  neighbour- 
hood of  the  White  Sea,  the  land  abounds  in 
pine  forests  and  birch-trees.  Here  wolves, 
bears,  foxes,  hares,  lynx,  elk,  and  small 
ground  game — to  say  nothing  of  sporting 
birds — literally  swarm.  Again,  in  the  Lake 
districts,  where  the  lakes,  by  the  way,  are 
the  largest  in  Europe,  the  fish  and  wildfowl 
are  more  than  plentiful.  In  my  wanderings 
in  Russian  territory,  especially  in  the  Lake 
regions,  I  have  often  been  impressed  by  the 
sense  of  breaking  new  ground.  What  I 
mean  by  this  may  not  at  once  be  clear. 
There  are  places  in  Africa  and  Canada  which 
supply  the  sensation  to  which  I  refer.  It  is  the 
imaginative  consciousness  that  no  man  since 
the  world  began  has  hitherto  penetrated 
to  the  spot  on  which  one  stands,  the 
knowledge  that  no  other  human  being  has 
beheld  the  exact  surroundings  on  which 
one's  eyes  dwell.  It  is  a  strange  feeling 
20 


A    GROUP    OF    RUSSIAN    PEASANT    WOMEN. 


Introduction 

which  leaves  a  pleasurable  memory  in  its 
wake. 

To  obtain  a  correct  idea  of  the  real 
Russian  people  and  of  the  national  character 
in  its  good  and  unfavourable  manifestations, 
we  must  not  confine  our  observations  to  the 
large  towns,  where  the  working  classes  have, 
through  their  contact  with  Western  civiliza- 
tion, lost  many  of  their  natural  advantages, 
and  acquired  the  vices  of  the  more  cultured 
nations  of  Europe. 

This  remark  applies  also  to  its  peasantry, 
who  form  87  per  cent,  of  the  entire  popula- 
tion. Russia  is  the  largest  agricultural 
country  in  the  world,  with  the  exception 
of  China  and  America.  Of  the  total  popu- 
lation, more  than  one  hundred  and  fifteen 
million  are  rooted  to  the  soil.  It  is  among 
these  toiling,  hardy,  and  patient  workers  that 
we  have  to  study  the  Russian  people  at 
their  best,  and  also  frequently  at  their  worst. 

It  is  largely  a  question  whether  the  de- 
moralization existing  among  the  poverty- 
stricken  peasants  of  the  interior  can  be 
compared  to  that  which  obtains  in  the  great 
23 


Things  Seen  in  Russia 

towns  among  the  drunken  and  improvider 
industrial  population  of  Russia  and  some  < 
the  most  advanced  States  in  Europe  an 
America. 

Among  the  millions  of  people,  comprisin 
Great  Russians,  White  Russians,  Litt 
Russians,  Finns,  Esths,  Tartars,  Khirgisi 
Baskirs,  Tcherimis,  and  many  strange  race 
subject  to  the  Tsar,  the  very  names  of  whic 
are  unknown  in  England,  we  meet  some  < 
the  finest  specimens  of  that  hardy  ra< 
which  in  a  few  hundred  years  has  sprea 
from  the  Baltic  to  the  Pacific,  and  endure 
more  hardships  and  misfortunes  than  an 
other  nation  in  Europe.  I  refer  in  pa] 
ticular  to  the  Great  Russians,  who  inhab: 
the  governments  of  Petersburg,  Novgoroc 
Pskoff,  Vologda,  Archangel,  Kostroma 
Yaroslaff,  Olonetz,  Tver,  and  other  goverr 
ments  settled  by  the  Varangian  Roos  in  tin 
great  watershed  of  the  Volga.  The  languag 
spoken  by  them  is  probably  the  most  pui 
of  the  many  dialects  obtaining  throughoi; 
the  Empire. 

As  a  young  man,  I  spent  a  considerabJ 
24 


RUSSIAN    PEASANT    HAWKER. 


He  is  selling  dried  plums  and  kvass,  a  fermented  drink  made  of  sour 
bread.  Many  of  these  hawkers  commence  with  a  few  roubles  and  finish  by 
being  millionaires 


Introduction 

time  among  the  peasantry  of  the  northern 
governments,  especially  among  the  Great 
Russians  of  the  governments  of  Tver, 
Novgorod,  and  Petersburg.  Though  much 
addicted  to  intoxication,  the  result  of  too 
many  holidays,  the  peasantry  of  the  North 
are  a  fine,  hardy  set  of  men.  Many  of  them 
subsist  by  hunting  the  bears,  foxes,  wolves, 
lynx,  and  other  fur-bearing  animals,  which 
are  found  in  great  numbers  in  the  forest 
regions.  Here,  in  these  vast  forests,  some 
of  which  have  never  been  disturbed  by  the 
hand  of  man,  hundred  of  thousands  of 
pounds'  worth  of  timber  lies  rotting  away, 
owing  to  the  want  of  communication  and 
the  scarcity  of  labour.  The  felling,  float- 
ing, and  sawing  of  this  timber  in  the 
northern  governments  provides  work  for  a 
large  portion  of  the  population,  and  a  con- 
siderable revenue  to  the  State,  which  owns 
many  millions  of  timber  forests  in  the 
North. 

The  whole  Lake  region,  which  abounds  in 
forests,  occupies  an  area  of  territory  equal 
to  England,  Holland,  France,  and  Germany 
27 


Things  Seen  in  Russia 

combined.  This  region,  which  also  includes 
part  of  Tver,  Olonetz,  Pskoff,  and  Novgorod, 
might  well  be  designated  the  cradle  of  the 
Russian  people,  for  here  the  ancient  king- 
dom of  Roos  had  its  origin. 

Here  the  Viking  Roos,  who  intermingled 
with  the  Slavs  of  Novgorod  and  other 
governments  in  the  seventh,  eighth,  and 
ninth  centuries,  had  their  first  settlements. 
It  is  among  the  governments  in  the  Lake 
region  (Ozerny  Oblast)  that  one  comes 
across  some  of  the  most  typical  specimens 
of  the  old  Russian  race.  The  really  pure 
Roos,  or  Russians,  I  have  found  in  many 
respects  like  the  Englishmen  of  East  Anglia 
and  Northumbria,  with  whom  they  have 
many  points  of  sympathy  and  resemblance, 
owing  to  the  strong  infusion  of  Scandinavian 
blood  in  both.  I  frequently  think  that  it 
is  this  infusion  of  Norse  blood  which  makes 
it  so  easy  for  Russians  and  English  people 
to  understand  one  another.  In  early  times 
it  must  have  been  very  considerable,  taking 
into  consideration  the  fact  that  nearly  all 
the  names  on  the  early  treaties  with  the 
28 


RUSSIAN    PEASANT    TEACHING    HIS    BOY    TO    READ. 

In  Russia  the  vast  majority  of  the  peasanty  are  exceedingly  illiterate. 
A  peasant  who  can  read  and  write  is  in  many  villages  looked  up  to  with  awe 
and  wonder. 


Introduction 

Byzantine  rulers  and  the  Roos  people  are 
Scandinavian,  not  Slav — the  very  same  old 
Norse  names  as  one  meets  in  Northumbria 
and  the  isles  of  Scotland.  In  fact,  the  word 
Roose  in  modern  Russian  is  synonymous 
with  our  word  "fair"  (ruddy  or  flaxen- 
haired). 

I  am  unable  to  account  for  the  sympathy 
between  Englishmen  and  genuine  Russians 
in  any  other  way,  for  I  have  not  only  found 
many  traits  in  character  common  to  the 
Great  Russians  and  the  English,  but  points 
in  appearance  also.  In  the  northern  govern- 
ments and  in  the  Upper  Volga  region,  settled 
by  the  Great  Russians,  one  often  comes 
across  fair,  blue-eyed,  golden-haired,  ruddy 
men  and  women,  like  those  one  sees  so 
frequently  among  the  sea  -  folk  of  East 
Anglia  and  Scotland. 

The  impenetrable  forests,  the  countless 
lakes,  the  mighty  rivers,  the  severe  climate, 
as  well  as  the  poverty  of  the  soil,  are  among 
the  factors  which  have  contributed  to  make 
the  Northern  Russians  a  hardy  people,  ex- 
ceedingly patient,  and  religious  at  heart. 


Things  Seen  in  Russia 

At  the  same  time,  it  must  be  added,  they 
are  most  superstitious.  Notwithstanding 
the  centuries  they  have  been  under  the 
influence  of  the  Greek  Orthodox  Christian 
faith  and  its  teachings,  they  still  profoundly 
believe  in  wood-sprites,  water-nymphs,  hob- 
goblins, fairies,  and  a  host  of  other  inhabi- 
tants of  the  unseen  world.  But  in  South 
Russia  the  people  are  even  more  inclined 
to  believe  in  these  superstitions.  The  power 
of  witches  and  wizards,  with  their  strange 
practices  and  customs,  is  great  indeed. 

The  old  pagan  religion,  too,  is  a  secret 
institution.  The  forests,  lakes,  plains,  and 
morasses  are,  according  to  the  simple  peasants, 
all  frequented  by  spirits.  Amid  the  dark 
and  sombre  trees  the  wood-sprites  have  their 
abode;  whilst  the  lakes,  rivers,  and  water- 
falls abound  in  water-sprites,  of  whom  the 
Roosalka  are  the  most  dangerous.  The 
wrath  of  the  water-god  Vodjanka,  a  being 
with  some  of  the  attributes  of  "  ^Eger  "  (the 
Eger  of  our  River  Trent),  has  to  be  appeased 
by  all  kinds  of  presents  and  petty  sacrifices 
— cocks,  hens,  and  other  domestic  animals 
32 


Introduction 

are  generally  chosen.  When  these  do  not 
appear  to  satisfy  the  water-god,  even  chil- 
dren have  been  secretly  sacrificed.  The 
writer  remembers  how  a  few  years  ago  a 
miller  in  South  Russia,  who  could  not  get 
his  mill  to  work,  purchased  a  child  from 
a  peasant  woman  for  six  roubles,  and  sank 
the  little  victim  in  the  mill-stream  close  to 
the  mill. 

The  miller  was,  however,  found  out,  owing 
to  his  forgetting  to  pay  the  mother  of  the 
unfortunate  infant  the  purchase  -  money. 
The  mother,  tortured  by  remorse,  and  burn- 
ing with  revenge  towards  the  faithless  miller, 
informed  the  police,  with  the  result  that 
both  the  miller  and  the  avaricious  parent 
were  sent  to  Siberia,  where  this  superstitious 
custom  also  exists. 

But  the  victims — as  a  rule,  cocks  and 
hens — are  placed  in  a  bag  with  a  piece  of  red 
cloth,  and  then  thrown  to  the  water-god. 

Whilst  offering  an  oblation  to  the  water- 
sprite,  it  is  usual  to  use  the  following  incan- 
tations :  u  Tsar  of  the  earth,  Tsaritza  of  the 
earth,  Tsar  of  the  waters,  and  Tsar  of  the 
33 


Thing 


s  Seen  in   Russia 


forests,  be  pleased  to  accept  this  little  gift  of 
water,  not  for  the  sake  of  cunning,  not  for 
the  sake  of  wisdom,  but  for  the  good  health 
of  such  and  such  a  child."  The  cult  of  the 
wood-sprite  obtains  mostly  in  the  forest 
region,  which  practically  embraces  almost 
half  the  entire  country  ;  whilst  the  water  cult 
(the  worship  of  water  sprites)  prevails  among 
the  thousands  of  fishermen,  raftsmen,  boat- 
men, and  sailors  of  the  mighty  rivers  and 
lakes,  which  are  so  numerous  in  Russia. 
The  belief  in  other  spirits,  such  as  the  Tsar 
of  the  winds,  who  is  accredited  with  all 
kinds  of  tricks  and  spiteful  practices,  is  also 
very  common. 

We  must  not  laugh  at  the  Russians  for 
being  so  exceedingly  superstitious  when  we 
remember  that  the  people  on  the  banks  of 
the  Trent,  near  to  which  I  spent  my  boy- 
hood, still  call  out  "  'Ware  Eger  !"  when  the 
tide  rushes  up  the  river  and  meets  the  out- 
flowing current.  In  the  Severn  this  strange 
phenomenon  is  called  "The  Boar,"  from 
the  angry  and  bristling  appearance  of  the 
waves. 

34 


RUSSIAN    NEWSPAPER-SELLER. 


Introduction 

The  water-sprites  have  frequently  to  be 
propitiated,  and  it  is  not  uncommon  to  find 
on  the  shores  of  the  lakes  and  rivers — in  the 
far -distant  governments  —  bent  sticks,  to 
which  are  fastened  pieces  of  children's  cloth- 
ing. This  is  supposed  to  induce  the  sprites 
to  keep  the  children  from  sickness.  There 
are  also  a  great  many  charms  against  the 
Evil  Eye,  the  effects  of  which  are  very  much 
feared,  especially  in  Little  Russia,  the  home 
of  all  kinds  of  medieval  and  pagan  super- 
stitions, many  of  which  are  thousands  of 
years  old,  and  peculiarly  like  those  that 
obtained  in  England  during  the  times  of 
Shakespeare. 

Many  heathen  customs  are  also  practised 
amongst  the  Finnish  peasants,  especially 
among  the  Votyaks,  Tcheremis,  Tchuvash, 
and  other  tribes  along  the  Volga,  who 
secretly  make  sacrifices  of  cattle  to  their 
old  pagan  gods,  while  openly  professing  the 
orthodox  faith. 

In  numerous  villages  of  Northern  Russia 
there  is  an  old  woman  called  a  znacharka 
(wise  woman),  who  effects  cures  by  spells 
37 


Things  Seen  in  Russia 

and  incantations  and  the  use  of  herbs.  The 
peasantry  have  frequently  more  faith  in 
these  old  women  than  in  the  doctors,  of 
whom  they  are  very  suspicious.  In  some 
localities  this  aversion  is  so  strong  that  the 
doctors  work  among  the  villagers  in  peril  of 
their  lives,  for  the  peasants  firmly  believe 
that  they  are  in  direct  communication  with 
the  Evil  One.  During  the  cholera  riots 
many  doctors  and  Sisters  of  Mercy  were  put 
to  death  "  for  witchcraft  and  poisoning  the 
people,'1  and  many  who  attempted  to  carry 
out  vaccinations  during  the  smallpox  epi- 
demics dearly  paid  for  their  courage. 

The  Russian  peasant  in  the  towns,  and 
frequently  in  the  country  also,  has  a  whole- 
some dread  of  hospitals,  "  for  there  they  cut 
up  people,"  and  he  often  prefers  to  die  rather 
than  enter  one,  or  enter  the  next  world  minus 
a  limb  or  some  other  valuable  member. 

In  some  villages  there  is  not  even  a 
znacharka,  let  alone  a  doctor.  The  only 
help  in  the  case  of  sickness  is  the  felsk'dr, 
an  old  soldier  who  has  learnt  the  rudiments 
of  surgery  in  the  army.  Like  the  famous 

38 


OFFICER    OF    THE    GENDARMES,    OR    STATE    POLICE. 

in  Russia  the  Gendarmes  occupy  themselves  solely  with  matters  of  a 
political  nature,  whilst  the  ordinary  duties  of  the  police  are  carried  out  by 
the  Gorodavois,  or  town  police. 


Introduction 

Dr.  Sangrado  in  "  Gil  Bias,"  he  believes  in 
blood-letting  or  the  banja  (hot  bath).  If 
these  two  remedies  do  not  help  his  patient, 
then  there  is  nothing  more  to  be  done. 
"It  is  the  will  of  God,  and  the  patient 
must  die." 

The  bath  is  a  great  local  institution,  and 
hardly  a  Saturday  passes  without  nearly  every 
villager  attending  this  favourite  exercise.  The 
smallest  cottage,  as  a  rule,  has  its  little  banjo,, 
or  steam  bath-house,  where  the  members  of 
the  family  get  a  good  steaming  once  a  week. 
The  banja  is  usually  built  of  rough  timber, 
and  heated  bv  means  of  a  rough  stove,  on 
which  the  peasants  lie  down  and  perspire 
to  their  heart's  content,  "  for  heat  breaks  no 
bones."  A  Russian  bath  is  a  most  trying 
ordeal,  and  unless  one  has  a  good  sound 
heart  it  is  better  to  leave  it  severely  alone. 
The  heat  is  terrific,  and  the  process  of 
scrubbing  with  matchalka  (a  kind  of  coarse 
grass)  and  beating  with  birch  twigs  makes 
one  resemble  at  the  finish  a  boiled  lobster 
or  a  very  red  cray-fish.  In  many  of  the 
northern  governments  the  villagers  vary 
41 


Things  Seen  in   Russia 

these  little  excitements  by  rushing  out  in 
a  state  of  nudity  and  rolling  themselves 
in  the  snow.  When  no  snow  is  at  hand, 
the  peasants  break  a  hole  in  the  ice  in  the 
nearest  river  or  lake  and  jump  into  the  water. 
Having  thus  performed  their  frigid  ablutions, 
they  rush  back  to  the  banja  to  continue  the 
process  of  being  "  boiled  alive." 

After  the  baiija  is  complete  and  the 
bathers  have  put  on  their  best  Sunday 
linen,  they  return  to  their  cottages,  heat 
their  huge  copper  tea-urns  (samovars),  and 
regale  themselves  with  hot  tea  until  the 
perspiration  again  commences  to  pour  from 
their  bodies.  Then  Ivan  Ivanovitch  is  happy, 
and  thanks  God  that  he  was  born  a  Russian 
and  not  a  weakly  foreigner,  consoling  himself 
with  his  national  proverb,  "  What's  death 
to  a  foreigner  is  life  to  a  Russian."  The 
samovar — lit.,  self-boiler — which  was  really 
invented  by  the  Tartars,  is  a  national  institu- 
tion, for  without  it  life  in  Russia  would  for 
millions  be  hardly  worth  living.  Good 
Russians  drink  tea  three  and  four  times  a 
day  in  enormous  quantities.  The  samovar 
42 


Copyright  Stereo,  H.  C.  White  Co. 

PEASANT    WOMEN    OF    LITTLE    RUSSIA. 

Bringing  milk  to  market. 


.; 
London. 


Introduction 

is  heated  with  charcoal,  which  is  placed  in 
a  pipe,  or  furnace,  in  the  centre.  Notwith- 
standing his  wonderful  capacity  to  stand  ex- 
tremes of  temperature,  the  Russian  peasant, 
and  even  his  superiors,  have  a  wholesome 
dread  of  cold  water  for  daily  use.  He  is, 
however,  passionately  fond  of  washing  his 
body  with  bucketsful  of  the  scalding  liquid. 
Thanks  to  this  craze,  I  should  say  the 
Russian  people  are  one  of  the  most  cleanly 
in  Europe,  as  regards  their  persons. 

In  various  southern  governments,  where  it 
is  impossible  for  every  cottage  to  have  its 
bath-house  owing  to  the  scarcity  of  timber, 
the  men,  women,  and  children  all  bathe 
together — as  they  do  in  Japan — in  one 
common  banja.  An  old  priest,  who  told 
me  of  this  custom,  said  he  had  observed 
that  in  the  parishes  where  it  obtained  the 
people  were  not  only  far  more  moral  and 
purer-minded  than  in  the  governments  where 
men  and  women  bathed  separately,  but  their 
married  life  more  peaceful  and  satisfactory. 

As  regards  infractions  against  morality, 
the  more  the  Russian  people  are  brought 
45 


Things  Seen  in   Russia 

in  contact  with  the  great  towns,  the  more 
lax  their  morals  become.  When  they  come 
under  the  influence  of  European  civilization, 
they  frequently  not  only  abandon  all  that  is 
good  in  their  own  faith,  but  do  not  replace 
it  with  the  moral  ethics  of  any  other.  They 
imagine  it  is  "the  thing"  to  scoff  at  all 
religion.  As  a  rule,  Russians  who  undergo 
this  transformation  generally  become  out- 
and-out  rogues,  and  the  rough,  superstitious, 
good-natured,  ignorant  peasant,  straight  from 
his  native  village,  is  far  more  to  be  trusted 
than  they.  Bismarck  has  truly  observed 
that  Ivan  Ivanovitch,  so  long  as  he  wears 
his  shirt  outside  his  trousers,  is  a  good 
fellow,  but  directly  he  tucks  it  in,  beware 
of  him.  There  is  a  lot  of  truth  in  this 
remark  ;  one  should  fight  shy  of  the  Russian 
peasant  who  apes  the  gospod  (the  gentry)  or 
the  foreigner. 

As  regards  sexual  morality,  the  code  not 
only  varies  with  the  race,  but  also  with  the 
government  or  district  (oojezd) ;  for  each 
race  and  each  religion  sets  up  its  own 
peculiar  code.  Thus  it  happens  that  a 
46 


Introduction 

course  of  conduct  which  is  considered  quite 
the  thing  in  one  village  or  parish  is  con- 
sidered highly  reprehensible  in  another.  In 
speaking  on  the  subject  of  morality,  we 
might  rightly  say  that  the  Russian  peasants 
are,  generally  speaking,  non-moral  and  not 
immoral ;  for  they,  like  the  savages,  have 
frequently  but  the  faintest  conception  of  a 
strict  moral  code  such  as  we  find  in  other 
European  countries. 

In  the  government  of  Olonetz,  the  in- 
habitants have  kept  their  old  patriarchal 
customs ;  the  morals  are  exceedingly  strict. 
Among  the  peasantry  of  this  government, 
especially  among  the  Korelians,  the  practice 
of  common  bathing  is  usual.  It  has  never 
been  known  to  lead  to  any  ill  results. 

The  Russian  peasant,  unlike  the  gloomy 
Finn,  is  very  fond  of  merry-making,  and 
seizes  every  opportunity  to  have  an  extra 
holiday,  though  he  has  from  150  to  180 
given  him  by  the  Church  each  year.  In  the 
long  winter  evenings  the  peasants  amuse 
themselves  with  dances,  suppers,  and  con- 
versations (b&yedi),  during  which  the  young 
47  c 


Things  Seen  in  Russia 

people  sing,  or  play  games  at  kissing,  while 
their  elders  look  on  and  regale  themselves 
with  vodki,  tea,  or  kvass,  the  national 
beverages.  These  evenings  are  frequently 
arranged  by  the  young  spinsters  of  the 
village  in  order  to  become  better  acquainted 
with  the  bachelors  (paren).  The  young 
women  make  themselves  particularly  agree- 
able on  these  occasions,  and  even  bring  with 
them  cakes,  sweetmeats  of  their  own  baking, 
beer,  and  vodJci,  in  order  to  find  prospective 
suitors. 

In  some  of  the  far-distant  villages  the 
beautiful  costumes  of  ancient  Moscow  and 
Novgorod,  with  which,  thanks  to  the  Russian 
ballet,  we  have  become  partially  acquainted 
in  England,  are  still  worn  by  the  daughters 
of  the  wealthy  classes.  The  national  costumes 
of  Russia  are  as  varied  as  they  are  attractive. 
Those  of  "  Little  Russia  the  Bountiful "  are 
perhaps  the  most  beautiful,  though  this  may 
only  be  a  question  of  taste.  Some  of  these 
costumes,  which  have  taken  many  winters  to 
sew  and  embroider,  are;  covered  with  hand- 
made lace,  the  making  of  which  gives  occupa- 


RUSSIAN    HAWKER    SELLING    TOYS    MADE    IN    THE    VILLAGES    BY 
THE    PEASANTS 

The  village  industries  in  Russia,  which  are  probably  the  most  remarkable 
in  the  world,  bring  in  millions  to  the  peasants,  especially  in  the  long  winter 
months,  when  the  soil  is  frozen  and  all  field-work  is  at  a  standstill. 


Introduction 

tion  to  thousands  of  peasant  women  all  over 
Northern  and  Southern  Russia. 

The  village  industries  of  Russia  are  worthy 
of  special  attention.  They  not  only  bring 
millions  of  pounds  to  the  needy  peasants 
when  all  their  own  peculiar  work  is  at  a 
standstill,  but  they  help  also  to  keep  them 
to  their  homes  and  villages.  An  idea  of 
their  value  may  be  obtained  from  the  fact 
that  the  five  governments  of  Astrachan, 
Simbirsk,  Kazan,  Samara,  and  Saratof  alone 
annually  produce  goods  to  the  value  of 
£12,000,000 !  What  the  industrial  output 
of  the  other  governments  is  I  am  unable  to 
state,  but  it  must  be  very  considerable. 

Every  government  and  every  parish  has 
its  own  special  industry.  For  example,  near 
Kazan,  the  Tartar  women  annually  make 
300,000  pairs  of  slippers  for  the  faithful, 
worth  about  5,000,000  roubles.  At  Romano- 
Boroseglebsk,  on  the  Volga,  and  the  villages 
near  this  picturesque  town,  there  is  a  very 
considerable  industry — the  manufacture  of 
short  fur  coats  (poloshoobke).  These  coats 
are  in  great  demand  all  over  Russia,  and  are 
51 


Things  Seen  in  Russia 

made  to  the  value  of  <£>!, 500,000  annually. 
Other  towns  and  villages  are  occupied  in 
making  ikons  (holy  pictures),  boots,  shoes, 
horn  and  wooden  spoons,  furniture,  lace, 
toys,  embroidery,  velvet,  lacquer -work  of 
great  beauty,  penknives,  and  a  variety  of 
other  objects  of  considerable  utility. 

Besides  these  village  industries,  concerning 
which  volumes  might  be  written,  there  are 
the  manufacturing  industries  of  the  great 
centres,  Moscow,  Tver,  Yaroslaff,  Kostroma, 
and  Petersburg.  The  cheap  and  gaudy 
materials  produced  by  numerous  mills  scat- 
tered throughout  Northern  and  Central 
Russia  have  already,  in  many  places  near 
the  principal  towns,  tempted  the  peasants 
to  abandon  their  beautiful  national  costumes,  • 
many  of  which  are  of  great  antiquity. 

The  Great  Russian  national  costume  has 
been  adopted  by  the  conservative  Korelians 
and  other  Finnish  tribes,  who  are  gradually 
becoming  Russianized  as  far  as  their  cos- 
tume and  language  are  concerned.  These 
innovations  cannot,  however,  hide  their 
Mongolian  origin,  and  neither  language  nor 
52 


WINTER    SCENE    IN    A    RUSSIAN    VILLAGE. 

Peasant  girls  carrying  water  from  a  sleigh. 


Introduction 

clothing  will  make  them  lose  their  own 
peculiarities,  which  mark  them  as  being 
so  essentially  different  from  the  Russians — 
not  only  in  character,  but  in  race. 

The  Russian  peasants  are  very  fond  of 
music,  and  compose  extempore  songs,  which 
they  accompany  with  the  concertina  or 
balalaika* 

All  through  Russia,  wherever  the  Russian 
people  are  settled,  the  traveller  will  hear 
the  peasants  singing  their  favourite  songs, 
especially  at  harvest-time.  Many  of  the 
songs  are  very  plaintive,  and  full  of  the 
most  exquisite  melody,  although  I  must 
confess  the  words  are  very  banal  and  poor. 

The  majority  of  the  Great  Russian 
peasants  live  in  villages,  some  of  which  are 
so  large  that  they  might  almost  be  desig- 
nated small  towns.  They  generally  consist 
of  one  long  street,  with  rows  of  substantially- 
built  log-huts  on  each  side,  and  several  trak- 
ters  (public-houses)  at  convenient  distances. 

*  A  kind  of  banjo,  of  exceedingly  simple  con- 
struction, capable  of  producing,  in  combination  with 
other  instruments  of  the  same  type,  some  exceed- 
ingly fine  effects. 

55 


Things  Seen  in   Russia 

As  a  rule,  I  have  noticed  that  the  larger 
the  village,  the  more  corrupt  and  spoilt  are 
the  inhabitants ;  for  human  beings  in  this 
respect  appear  to  be  like  apples — the  more 
they  are  crowded  together,  the  sooner  they 
become  rotten.  The  Russian  is  by  nature 
so  sociable  in  character  that  he  cannot,  like 
the  Finn,  bear  to  live  alone  in  some  dreary 
swamp  or  forest.  He  must  have  society, 
even  if  he  pays  very  dearly  for  the  privilege, 
and  this  is  one  of  the  reasons  why  we  find  so 
many  large  villages  in  Great  Russia. 

In  the  northern  governments,  where  timber 
is  both  cheap  and  plentiful,  the  houses  of 
the  peasants  present  marked  indications  of 
well-being  and  comfort,  especially  in  Nov- 
gorod and  Olonetz.  The  high  roofs  of  the 
cottages  are  covered  with  thin  planks  ;  the 
doorways,  balconies,  window  -  frames,  and 
porches  are  carefully  carved,  or  adorned  with 
beautiful  fret-work.  Most  of  these  cottages 
are  simply  built  with  an  axe,  which  in  the 
skilful  hand  of  the  Russian  peasant  takes 
the  place  of  saw,  chisel,  hammer,  plane,  and 
a  variety  of  other  tools. 

56 


RUSSIAN    PEASANT    SELLING    BROOMS    AND    BRUSHES. 


Introduction 

In  some  of  the  northern  governments, 
originally  settled  by  the  Norsemen  —  in 
Russia  called  "Varangians" — it  is  not  un- 
common to  come  across  two-storied  cottages 
of  considerable  dimensions.  These  houses, 
with  their  balconies  and  decorations,  still 
show  traces  of  the  old  Varangian  influence, 
and  so  do  the  drinking- vessels  and  other 
domestic  utensils.  Owing  to  their  great 
distance  from  the  principal  centres  of  Euro- 
pean civilization,  the  people  of  the  North 
have  preserved  their  own  peculiar  customs, 
superstitions,  and  attire  almost  as  they  were 
a  thousand  years  ago. 

In  conclusion,  it  is  as  well  to  state  that 
Ivan  Ivanovitch,  with  all  his  superstition, 
credulity,  and  ignorance,  is  no  fool;  for  was 
it  not  the  great  Tolstoi  who  said  "  that  the 
wisest  man  he  ever  met  was  a  Russian 
peasant "  ?  How  often,  under  that  rugged 
exterior,  that  rough  sheepskin  coat,  one 
meets  a  noble  and  kindly  heart,  and  a 
character  so  gifted  and  pliable  that  it  can 
be  almost  made  to  fit  any  position.  Was 
not  Menchikoff,  Peter  the  Great's  Chan- 
59 


Things  Seen  in  Russia 

cellor  and  adviser,  a  pie-boy?  And  how 
many  more  Menchikoffs  of  equal  genius 
have  sprung  up  from  the  ranks  of  the  simple 
Russian  peasantry !  I  have  myself  met 
many  merchants  and  men  of  enterprise,  well- 
informed  and  well  -  mannered,  the  owners 
of  large  factories,  who  once  were  simple, 
ignorant  peasants.  They  are,  however,  not 
ashamed  of  their  origin,  and  still  dress  in  the 
peasant  costume,  although  their  clothes  are 
of  the  best  quality.  It  is  said  there  are 
112,000,000  peasants  in  Russia.  If  this  be 
the  case,  there  is  latent  in  the  Russian 
people  a  force  which  will  some  day,  not  only 
affect  its  destinies,  but  probably  the  des- 
tinies of  Europe,  for  such  a  mighty  power 
cannot  always  be  suppressed  or  ignored. 


60 


CHAPTER  II 
ST.  PETERSBURG 

"  The  window  which  looks  on  Europe." 

THE  first  view  of  the  Neva,  with  the 
beautiful  Nicholai  Bridge,  and  the 
palaces  and  churches  stretched  along  its 
shores,  impresses  one  with  the  magnificence 
of  Peter's  "  Earthly  Paradise "  —  as  the 
Emperor  himself  was  pleased  to  call  it. 

Towering  above  the  palaces  and  public 
buildings  is  the  enormous  dome  of  the 
Cathedral  of  St.  Isaac,  one  of  the  most 
costly  and  splendid  cathedrals  in  the  world. 

The  territory  on  which  St.  Petersburg  is 
built  was  for  centuries  an  integral  part  of 
the  ancient  Republic  of  Novgorod  the  Great. 
It  subsequently  came  into  the  possession  of 
the  Swedes,  from  whom  it  was  wrested  after 
many  battles  and  a  sanguinary  war,  which 
61 


Things  Seen  in  Russia 

lasted  twenty  years.  With  the  aid  of  the 
Swedish  prisoners  and  all  the  convicts  and 
malefactors  he  could  find  in  his  then  thinly- 
populated  dominions,  Peter,  after  untold 
hardships  and  reverses,  managed  to  lay  the 
foundations  of  the  city,  which  was  destined 
to  become  the  chief  centre  of  the  Russian 
Court  and  Administration,  and  to  supplant 
Moscow,  the  old  capital.  It  is  now  about 
two  hundred  years  since  Peter  laid  the 
foundation  of  his  "  Earthly  Paradise  "  and 
his  Empire.  Russia,  which  then  only  con- 
tained 14,000,000  inhabitants,  has  now  over 
160,000,000. 

Peter  did  not  stop  at  the  most  heroic 
methods  to  carry  out  his  pet  scheme  of 
making  "a  window  to  look  on  Europe" — 
from  which  he  did  not  wish  to  be  debarred 
any  longer  by  the  jealous  fear  of  the  Western 
Powers. 

As  the  Swedish  prisoners  were  insufficient 
for  his  requirements,  in  1710  he  issued  a 
Ukaz  to  the  effect  that  40,000  workmen 
should  be  sent  to  the  "  Northern  Palmyra." 
In  consequence  of  this  order,  150,000  men 
62 


Copyright  Stereo,  H.  C.  White  Co.  London. 

THE    WINTER    PALACE    OF    ST.    PETERSBURG. 

In  this  palace  the  Tsar  and  the  Imperial  Family  sometimes  reside  in  the 
winter-time.  This  enormous  building  was  commenced  by  the  Empress 
Elizabeth  according  to  the  designs  of  Rastrelli,  and  completed  by 
Cathernine  II.  in  1769. 


St.   Petersburg 

were  despatched  to  St.  Petersburg,  of  whom 
a  great  number  perished,  however,  through 
marsh  fever,  cold,  and  other  hardships.  All 
good  Russians  hated  the  new  capital,  and 
in  1714  Peter  issued  another  Ukaz,  for- 
bidding anyone  to  build  a  stone  house 
except  in  St.  Petersburg,  under  penalty  of 
exile  to  Siberia  and  confiscation  of  property. 
Every  noblemen  was  therefore  obliged,  not 
only  to  build  a  palace  or  house  in  St. 
Petersburg,  but  also  to  bring  with  him 
a  certain  quantity  of  rough  stone.  By 
these  and  similar  measures  Petersburg  was 
called  into  being.  The  Muscovite  officials 
and  nobles  so  thoroughly  detested  Peter's 
"  Paradise "  that  the  breath  was  scarcely 
out  of  his  body  when  there  was  a  regular 
stampede  back  to  the  old  capital,  and,  for 
a  time  at  least,  Petersburg  was  wellnigh 
deserted.  Thus  the  new  capital  presented 
a  very  sad  spectacle,  for  the  houses  were  not 
only  roofless,  but  in  ruins. 

In  1732  the  Empress  Anne  removed  to 
St.  Petersburg  with  her  entire  Court  and 
Administration,  and  from  that  time  the  city 


Things  Seen  in  Russia 

has  increased  in  splendour,  size,  wealth,  and 
importance. 

Catherine  II.  and  her  successors,  Paul, 
Nicholas  I.,  Alexander  II.,  Alexander  III., 
and  Nicholas  II.,  have,  in  their  turn,  added 
to  its  attractions,  and  what  was  once  a 
dreary  marsh,  infested  with  wolves,  bears, 
foxes,  and  wildfowl,  is  now  without  ques- 
tion one  of  the  finest  capitals  in  Europe, 
with  a  population  of  about  2,000,000. 
But  with  all  the  Imperial  Ukazes,  and  all 
the  millions  spent,  the  city  is  not  healthy. 
In  some  portions  it  is  built  on  piles  like 
Amsterdam.  Owing  to  its  marshy  soil  and 
to  the  impossibility  of  obtaining  good 
drinking-water,  it  is,  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
one  of  the  most  unhealthy  capitals  in 
Europe,  with  a  mortality  sometimes  exceed- 
ing SO  per  thousand.  The  sudden  changes 
in  the  temperature  are  very  trying,  too,  and 
it  is  unwise  to  venture  out  in  the  evening  even 
in  summer  without  taking  an  overcoat.  One 
old  gentleman,  with  whom  I  was  acquainted, 
went  so  far  as  to  keep  half  a  dozen  over- 
coats, which  he  put  on  at  different  hours 
66 


till 


Copyright  Stereo,  H.  C.  White  Co.  London. 

ARCH    OF    THE    FOREIGN    OFFICE    AT    ST.    PETERSBURG. 

Through  this  is  seen  the  Royal  Winter  Palace  and  the  Alexander  Column, 
the  largest  granite  pillar  in  the  world.  The  Winter  Palace  is  about  two- 
thirds  of  a  mile  in  circumference. 


St.   Petersburg 

of  the  day,  according  to  the  temperature. 
Thanks  to  these  tactics,  he  managed  to 
reach  a  good  ripe  age.  But  the  majority 
of  Petersburgers  will  not  be  bothered  by 
such  measures  of  precaution,  and  prefer  "  a 
short  life  and  a  merry  one."  With  this 
object  they  turn]  night  into  day,  and  be- 
lieve, with  Sheridan,  that  "  the  best  way  to 
lengthen  our  days  is  to  take  a  bit  out  of  the 
nights."  Among  the  aristocracy  and  upper 
classes,  many  devotees  of  pleasure  hardly 
ever  go  to  bed  at  night,  but  sleep  in  the 
daytime  instead. 

They  go  to  a  ball  about  9  or  10  p.m., 
and  dance,  feast,  or  play  at  cards  until  the 
small  hours  of  the  morning,  when  they  drive 
home  more  asleep  than  awake.  If  they  are 
officials,  with  pressing  departmental  work, 
they  get  up  about  ten  or  eleven ;  more 
privileged  individuals  (priveligorveny)  do 
not  make  their  appearance  before  twelve  or 
one  o^clock.  One  old  Generalsha  (General's 
wife)  of  my  acquaintance  used,  when  too  old 
to  attend  balls  and  parties,  to  spend  the 
night  at  home,  smoking  enormous  quantities 


Things  Seen  in  Russia 

of  cigarettes,  making  sweetmeats,  composing 
poetry,  and  worrying  her  servants.  With 
all  her  strange  habits  and  failings,  she  was 
exceedingly  charitable,  like  so  many  of  her 
compatriots,  who  are,  as  a  rule,  both  charit- 
able and  hospitable. 

Card-playing  is  a  serious  and  very  im- 
portant pastime  in  Russia.  In  a  country 
where  the  pursuit  of  politics  is  not  alto- 
gether advisable,  many  people  who  would 
otherwise  dabble  in  public  affairs  throw  all 
their  attention  into  cards  and  gambling. 
"  Windt,"  whist,  "  stukkoko,"  and  "  prefer- 
ence,11 seem  to  be  the  favourite  games.  The 
various  incidents  in  the  contests  of  the 
previous  night  are  discussed  on  'Change  and 
in  the  Government  offices  with  all  serious- 
ness, where  tea-drinking  and  smoking  an 
enormous  quantity  of  cigarettes  apparently 
make  a  great  inroad  into  the  time  of  the 
officials,  who,  if  not  well  paid,  certainly  do 
not  seem  overburdened  with  work. 

Enormous  quantities  of  cards  are  sold  in 
Russia,  though  the  duty  payable  on  each 
pack  does  not  go  to  the  State,  as  in  France 


fc     rt 

il 

o     ?> 


St.   Petersburg 

and  Italy,  but  to  the  Institution  of  the 
Empress  Marie,  which  has  the  sole  right  of 
manufacturing  playing-cards.  Thanks  to 
this  scheme,  a  great  number  of  schools  and 
hospitals,  which  are  under  the  direction 
of  the  Institution,  are  supported,  and 
thousands  of  poor  and  unfortunate  people 
are  benefited. 

Cards  thus  indirectly  contribute  to  the 
support  of  the  hospitals,  the  orphans'  homes, 
etc.  A  small  tax  is  also  levied  on  each 
theatre  and  opera  ticket  sold.  A  tax  of 
R.I  (52s.)  is  also  levied  on  every  moujitis 
passport.  This  goes  to  the  municipal 
hospitals,  which  are  bound  to  give  the  tax- 
payer the  best  attendance  should  he  fall  ill. 
This  is  an  excellent  way  of  supporting  the 
hospitals,  and  it  is  a  wonder  it  is  not  adopted 
in  England,  where  some  measure  of  this 
nature  is  urgently  needed. 

Theatre-going  takes  up  a  great  deal  of 
the  time  of  the  pleasure-loving  Petersburgers. 
Although  the  Russians  are  passionately  fond 
of  music  and  the  opera,  I  think  the  ballet 
takes  the  first  place  in  their  affections. 
73 


Things  Seen  in  Russia 

The  Crown  theatres  of  Petersburg,  Moscow, 
Odessa,  Kieff,  and  other  great  centres,  are 
usually  splendid  buildings  constructed  after 
the  purest  classical  models.  The  Mariensky 
Theatre  and  the  Grand  Opera  House  (which 
is  now  the  Conservatoire  of  Music)  are  the 
finest  buildings  of  their  kind  in  St.  Peters- 
burg. The  Mariensky  Theatre  is  not  only 
the  home  of  the  ballet,  but  of  the  Russian 
national  opera,  of  which  all  true  Russians 
are  deservedly  proud. 

In  addition  to  the  Opera  House  and  the 
Mariensky  Theatre,  there  is  a  fine  Govern- 
ment playhouse,  where  first-class  Russian  and 
foreign  plays  are  given  during  the  winter 
months.  As  the  repertoire  is  under  the 
supervision  of  the  censors,  and  as  the  Govern- 
ment pays  for  the  production  and  staging  of 
the  various  pieces,  a  high  standard  of  excel- 
lence is  maintained.  Thanks  to  this  condi- 
tion of  affairs,  the  theatre-going  public  in 
Russia,  though  comparatively  small,  is  criti- 
cal and  difficult  to  please.  One  remarkable 
peculiarity  of  the  Russian  stage  is  the  popu- 
larity of  Shakespeare  ;  his  works  are  seldom 
76 


Copyright  Stereo,  II.  C.  White  Co. 


THE    PAVILION    OF    ALEXANDRINA    IMPERIAL    PARK_, 
TSARSKOE    SELO. 


St,   Petersburg 

off  the  stage  of  the  Petersburg  and  Moscow 
theatres.  When  the  plays  of  the  "Immortal 
Will "  are  not  being  played  in  the  Govern- 
ment houses,  owing  to  the  summer  closing, 
you  will  frequently  find  them  being  produced 
in  the  open-air  theatres  which  abound  in  and 
about  St.  Petersburg  and  Moscow.  When- 
ever I  compare  the  repertoire  of  the  English 
and  Russian  theatres,  it  seems  to  me  that 
Shakespeare  is  more  appreciated  in  Russia 
than  in  the  country  which  produced  him. 
Even  Catherine  II.  was  so  enraptured  by  his 
writings  that  she  herself  wrote  several  plays 
on  the  founding  of  Russia  by  the  Vikings, 
"  after  the  manner  of  William  Shakespeare — 
without  observing  the  customary  rules  of  the 
drama  !" 

Walter  Scott,  Byron,  Burns,  Macaulay, 
Thackeray,  Dickens,  Browning,  Buckle,  and 
many  other  great  English  writers  and  poets 
are  greatly  favoured  in  Russia.  Dickens 
is  very  popular  ;  I  have  myself  met  Russians 
who  habitually  carried  his  works  with  them 
in  their  pockets,  whilst  one  Russian  editor 
of  my  acquaintance  actually  wrote  a  play  on 
79 


Things  Seen  in   Russia 

Mr.  Pickwick.  Among  English  poets,  Byron 
is  perhaps  the  favourite  in  Russia,  especially 
among  young  ladies  (coursiste)  studying 
at  the  high  schools,  who  revel  in  the  pages 
of  the  creator  of  "  Don  Juan,"  etc. 

Of  course,  French  literature  is  much  appre- 
ciated by  the  Russians.  The  French  Mechail 
Theatre,  where  the  works  of  Racine,  Voltaire, 
Moliere,  and  other  Gallic  authors  are  pro- 
duced, attracts  exclusive  audiences,  mostly 
consisting  of  aristocrats,  officials,  and  military 
officers,  with  whom  a  perfect  knowledge  of 
French  is  considered  a  matter  of  supreme 
importance.  Although  French  is  the  princi- 
pal foreign  language  among  the  aristocracy, 
bureaucracy,  and  the  upper  classes  generally, 
English  is  considered  the  language  of  the 
higher  circles  of  the  Court — among  the 
members  of  the  Imperial  family,  for  instance. 
Members  of  the  very  highest  nobility,  too, 
display  a  knowledge  of  our  tongue  and  litera- 
ture which  often  strikes  Englishmen  with 
amazement. 

Not  only  English  classics  are  read  with 
eagerness  among  the  upper  and  bourgeois 
80 


Copyright  Stereo,  H.  C.  White  Co.  London. 

A    FOUNTAIN    IN    ONE    OF    THE  POMPEIAN    GARDENS    AT    PETERHOFF. 

Far  more  attractive  than  the  gardens  of  the  capital  are  the  beautiful 
summer  resorts  in  the  environs,  where  the  pleasure-living  inhabitants  of  the 
capital  spend  their  evenings  in  these  beautiful  spots. 


St.   Petersburg 

classes,  but,  personally,  I  have  often  been 
astonished  to  see  on  the  tables  in  Moscow 
and  Petersburg  houses,  English,  French,  and 
German  monthly  magazines. 

It  is  the  wonderful  capacity  for  acquiring 
modern  languages,  and  the  thorough  ground- 
ing in  the  literature  of  England,  France,  and 
Germany,  which  in  some  respects  make  the 
Russians  the  most  liberally  educated  people 
in  the  world. 

In  speaking  of  the  public  amusements  of 
Petersburg  and  Moscow,  one  must  not  forget 
the  Summer  Gardens  scattered  around  the 
environs  of  these  two  gay  capitals.  Those 
of  St.  Petersburg  are  particularly  famous, 
especially  "  Krestoffsky,"  "Pompeii,"  the 
"  Aquarium,1"  to  say  nothing  of  the  Zoo. 
Here  the  gay  young  men  and  women  of  the 
capital  amuse  themselves  on  holidays  and 
Saints'*  Days. 

Were  it  not  for  the  damp  climate  these 
gardens  would  be  exceedingly  enjoyable, 
especially  during  June,  July,  and  August, 
when  it  is  light  the  whole  night  long. 

But  far  more  attractive  than  the  gardens 

83 


Things   Seen  in   Russia 

are  the  beautiful  summer  resorts — Peterhoff, 
Strelna,  Tsarskoe  Selo,  Oraninbaum,  Pavlovsk, 
Ozerkee,  Schoovalofva — where  the  pleasure- 
loving  inhabitants  of  the  capital  make  up 
for  the  long  and  trying  winter  by  spending 
their  evenings  on  these  beautiful  spots. 

All  who  visit  Petersburg  must  not  fail  to 
visit  these  beautiful  environs  of  the  capital, 
which  more  than  make  up  for  many  of  its 
deficiencies  and  inconveniences. 

For  those  who  can  afford  neither  the  time 
nor  the  money  to  visit  their  friends  in  the 
country,  at  some  cosy  villa,  they  might  do 
worse  than  spend  the  evenings  in  the  attrac- 
tive gardens  of  St.  Petersburg,  listening  to 
the  splendid  music,  and  drinking  the  aro- 
matic tea  of  Kyachta  (to  which  lemon  slices 
are  added  instead  of  milk).  But  music  is  not 
the  only  diversion.  There  are  all  sorts  of 
*'  turns  "  :  troupes  of  South  Russian  gipsies 
and  dancers,  as  well  as  swarthy  gipsies  from 
the  Caucasus,  Russian  peasant  comedians, 
and  acrobats.  The  gipsies  are  in  great 
demand,  especially  for  their  Oriental  dancing, 
and  their  sentimental  and  impassioned  love- 


INTERIOR  OP  ONE  OF  THE  POMPEIAN  VILLAS  AT  PETERHOFF. 

All  who  visit  Petersburg  must  not  fail  to  see  the  beautiful  environs  and  palaces, 
Peterhoflf,  Strelna,  Tsarskoe  Selo,  Pavlovsk,  Krasnoe  Selo,  and  Gatchina. 


St.   Petersburg 

songs.  Many  of  the  gipsy  singers  amass 
great  fortunes,  and  are  the  favourites  of  the 
Russian  Jcooptzee  (peasant  merchants),  who 
lavish  thousands  of  roubles  on  the  swarthy 
Tzigane  women.  One  Jcoopets,  whom  I 
knew,  used  to  come  to  the  gardens  with 
a  pocket-book  full  of  Catherinas  (<^?10  bank- 
notes), and  throw  them  broadcast  among 
the  singers  and  dancers.  Sometimes  the 
performances  conclude  with  a  drunken  orgie, 
during  which  the  Jcooptzee,  in  order  to  show 
their  generosity  and  absolute  contempt  for 
money,  finish  off  by  smashing  all  the  mirrors 
and  wine-glasses,  and  then  coolly  calling  for 
the  bill !  Every  class  has  its  own  peculiar 
canons  of  behaviour;  the  wealthy  Jcooptzee 
frequently  possess  more  wit  and  money  than 
good  manners  or  breeding.  It  must  be 
remembered  that  the  majority  of  the  Jcoopt- 
zee spring  from  the  peasant  class,  and  have 
neither  the  birth,  breeding,  or  social  status 
of  the  merchants  in  England. 

Petersburg   is   a   great   place   for   winter 
sports,  and  among  its  inhabitants  are  some 
of  the  finest  skaters  in  Europe.     Ice-hilling 
8? 


Things  Seen  in  Russia 

and  tobogganing  are  favourite  amusements, 
and  in  the  environs  of  the  city  there  are 
some  excellent  ice  -  hills.  Ice -yachting  is 
popular  when  the  Gulf  of  Finland  is  frozen 
over — usually  with  beautiful  clear  ice,  from 
2  to  3  feet  thick.  There  is  no  more  in- 
vigorating sport  than  a  spin  in  an  ice-yacht 
down  or  up  the  Gulf,  or  ski-ing  on  the  hills 
of  Finland.  Sleighing  is  delightful,  too, 
especially  when  one  is  drawn  by  a  troika, 
or  three  swift  horses. 

One  way  or  another  winter  is  perhaps 
the  most  attractive  season  in  St.  Petersburg. 
It  is  also  a  grand  time  for  hunting  the  bears, 
elk,  wolves,  and  foxes  which  swarm  in  the 
forests  a  few  hours"  journey  from  the  capital. 
Wolf-hunting,  either  on  horseback  or  by 
catching  the  animal  alive  with  the  aid  of 
bortzee  (Siberian  wolf-hounds),  is  an  exciting 
form  of  sport. 

A  great  drawback  to  health  and  comfort 
in  St.  Petersburg  is  the  marshy  soil  and  the 
inundations.  Every  autumn  since  the  city 
was  built  by  Peter  the  Great  (who  was  once 
almost  drowned  himself  by  the  sudden  rising 


St.   Petersburg 

of  the  Neva)  Petersburg  has  been  flooded. 
I  myself  witnessed  a  good  many  inundations 
during  the  twelve  years  I  resided  in  the 
capital,  and  I  must  confess  that  I  have 
never  seen  a  more  impressive  sight  than  one 
of  the  sudden  onslaughts  of  the  deep,  swift, 
and  mighty  river  which  flows  past  Tsar 
Peter's  city.  The  firing  of  the  minute-guns, 
as  the  water  rises,  the  howling  of  the  wind, 
and  the  steady  rush  of  the  advancing  tide 
from  the  Gulf,  are  things  never  to  be  forgotten. 
In  the  winter  months  the  Neva  and  the 
Gulf  of  Finland  are  covered  over  with  a 
coating  of  ice  averaging  from  1  to  3  feet 
in  thickness.  The  sawing,  carting,  and 
storing  of  this  ice  provides  a  considerable 
amount  of  labour  for  the  moujiks,  who  come 
to  the  capital  in  thousands  every  summer 
and  winter  in  search  of  work.  Before  the 
winter  sets  in  navigation  between  Peters- 
burg and  Cronstadt  is  made  possible  by 
means  of  the  ice-breaker,  the  Ermak,  which 
was  designed  by  the  unfortunate  Admiral 
Makaroff,  of  Port  Arthur  notoriety.  It  is 
a  grand  and  inspiring  sight  to  see  the 
89 


Things  Seen  in  Russia 

Ermdk  as  she  pounds  her  way  through  the 
ice,  and  makes  a  channel  for  the  ships  and 
steamers  bound  for  Cronstadt  and  the  other 
ports  of  the  Baltic.  This  remarkable  vessel, 
which  was  built  by  Messrs.  Armstrong  and 
Co.,  of  Newcastle,  for  the  Russian  Govern- 
ment, is  capable  of  ploughing  her  way 
through  ice  18  feet  thick  at  a  speed  of  eight 
knots.  Some  of  the  packs  she  breaks  through 
are  7  feet  above  the  surface  and  about  30  feet 
below.  Thanks  to  the  existence  of  this 
vessel,  it  is  now  possible  to  keep  open  some  of 
the  Baltic  and  White  Sea  ports  during  the 
winter  months — when  absolutely  necessary. 

As  an  old  resident  of  St.  Petersburg,  I  do 
not  think  it  would  be  fair  to  omit  all  refer- 
ence to  some  of  its  most  remarkable  sights 
and  objects  of  interest. 

First  and  foremost  among  them  is  the 
glorious  Cathedral  of  St.  Isaac  (close  to  the 
Hotel  Angleterre).  Its  beautiful  gilded 
dome  is  the  first  thing  to  strike  the  eye  on 
approaching  St.  Petersburg  from  the  Gulf 
of  Finland.  This  dome,  with  its  cross, 
40  feet  higher  than  St.  Paul's,  is  visible 
90 


St.   Petersburg 

for  forty  miles  around.  The  cathedral  itself 
is  of  granite  and  marble  ;  the  massive  pillars 
which  support  the  facades  are  worthy  of  an 
ancient  Greek  temple  as  regards  their  size  and 
workmanship.  It  is  said  that  Catharine  II., 
who  was  religious  in  her  own  peculiar  way, 
spent  upwards  of  two  million  pounds  on 
the  building  alone.  She  is  also  estimated 
to  have  spent  eighty  million  pounds  on 
her  favourites !  The  costly  mosaics,  the 
holy  ikons,  studded  with  pearls  and  other 
precious  stones,  the  gold  and  silver  candle- 
sticks, and  the  exquisite  paintings,  are 
valuable  beyond  estimate.  A  vague  idea 
of  its  wealth  may  be  formed  from  the  fact 
that  the  gold  and  silver  vessels  of  this  sacred 
edifice  reach  three  English  tons  in  weight. 

One  of  the  great  attractions  of  the  Isaac 
Cathedral  is  the  glorious  singing  of  its 
choirs.  Some  of  the  voices  are  quite  pheno- 
menal, especially  the  bass  voices.  It  is  said 
that  Russia  possesses  the  finest  bass  voices 
in  the  world  ;  the  dry  climate  and  remark- 
able extremes  of  heat  and  cold  have  much 
to  do  with  their  depth  and  tone.  Good 
93 


Things  Seen  in  Russia 

tenors,  however,  seem  to  be  scarce,  and  I 
should  say  that  for  every  tenor  one  finds 
in  St.  Petersburg  it  would  be  possible  to 
find  four  in  any  English  town  of  the  same 
size.  As  organs  and  other  instruments  are 
forbidden  in  the  Russian  churches,  the 
choirs  have  to  be  highly  trained.  The  old 
Gregorian  chants,  some  of  which  are  said  to 
date  from  the  fourth  century,  are  wonder- 
fully impressive  and  effective. 

All  who  are  interested  in  Russian  Church 
music  should  visit  the  Isaac  Cathedral  ;  also 
the  wealthy  Alexander  Nevsky  Monastery, 
outside  the  city  gates,  at  the  end  of  the 
Nevsky  Prospect. 

This  monastery,  by  the  way,  is  said  to 
possess  an  annual  revenue  of  about  half  a 
million  sterling ;  it  was  founded  by  Peter 
the  Great  as  a  last  resting-place  for  the 
bones  of  the  Grand  Duke  Alexander  Nevsky 
of  Novgorod,  who  defeated  the  Swedish  army 
under  Birjer-Jarl  on  the  very  spot  where 
the  monastery  now  stands.  The  Swedes 
were  then  Catholics,  and  at  the  instigation 
of  the  Pope  headed  a  crusade  against  the 
94 


3-d 


9  I1 
3* 


a  1o 

02  <u 

05        «   uo 

" 


-s 

o 
Q 


St.   Petersburg 

heretic  Grand  Duke  of  Novgorod — with  dis- 
astrous consequences  ;  for  their  army  was 
taken  by  surprise,  and  routed  by  the 
Novgorodians. 

The  bones  of  the  saint  now  rest  in  a 
shrine  of  solid  silver  about  two  tons  in 
weight.  This  monastery  is  full  of  jewels, 
pillars  of  lapus  lazuli,  relics,  sacred  vessels, 
and  ikons,  encrusted  with  diamonds,  sap- 
phires, pearls,  and  other  valuable  stones, 
costing  millions  of  roubles.  The  monastery 
is  so  rich  that  during  the  Crimean  War  the 
patriotic  monks  lent  Nicholas  several  million 
pounds. 

There  are  other  monasteries  even  richer 
than  that  of  Alexander  Nevsky,  and  should 
Russia  ever  be  invaded  she  always  has  their 
wealth  to  fall  back  upon  as  a  last  resource. 
So  far  she  has  not  had  her  Henry  VIII.,  and 
the  vast  treasures  stored  away  in  her  sacred 
buildings  are  still  intact.  Her  rich  peasant 
kooptzee,  who  do  not  believe  in  banks,  but 
store  their  wealth  in  the  cellars  of  their 
houses,  must  also  not  be  forgotten  as  a 
source  of  revenue  in  time  of  dire  need. 
97 


Things  Seen  in  Russia 

Next  to  the  Isaac  Cathedral,  the  Kazan 
Cathedral,  named  after  the  holy  image  of 
the  "  Kazan  Mother  of  God,"  is  one  of  the 
most  interesting  piles  in  Russia.  It  is  situ- 
ated on  the  Nevsky  Prospect, the  "Piccadilly" 
of  St.  Petersburg.  It  is  supposed  to  have 
been  built  after  the  model  of  St.  Peter's 
at  Rome,  to  which  its  beautiful  colonnades 
certainly  bear  some  resemblance.  But  the 
miniature  cone  surmounting  the  great  build- 
ing certainly  cannot  in  any  way  be  compared 
to  the  magnificent  dome  of  St.  Peter's,  ex- 
cepting in  shape. 

It  would  take  too  long  to  describe  the 
contents  of  the  cathedral  in  any  detail ; 
a  part  of  the  treasure  recaptured  from 
Napoleon's  army,  112  French  eagles,  as  well 
as  the  keys  of  Memel,  Berlin,  and  various 
other  cities,  find  a  resting-place  within  its 
walls. 

The  three  principal  thoroughfares  of  St. 
Petersburg  are  the  Nevsky  Prospect,  the 
Grande  Morskaja,  and  the  Letennija,  all 
splendid  streets,  full  of  beautiful  shops. 
Here  the  gay  Petersburgers  drive  up  and 


THE    NEVSKY    PROSPECT. 


The  three  principal  thoroughfares  of  St.  Petersburg  are  the  Nevsky 
Prospect,  the  Grande  Morskaja,  and  the  Letennija,  all  splendid  streets,  full 
of  beautiful  shops.  Here  the  gay  Petersburgers  drive  up  and  down  to  show 
off  their  fine  black  Orloff  horses  and  beautiful  equipages. 


St.   Petersburg 

down  to  show  off  their  fine  black  Orloff  horses 
and  beautiful  equipages.  Many  smart  people 
go  on  foot,  be  it  added ;  walking  is,  in  fact, 
a  favourite  occupation  which  obtains  in 
almost  every  town  and  village  in  Russia. 
They  call  it  goolyania  (from  gootyatj, 
to  walk).  Only  Russians  or  people  with 
Oriental  proclivities  could  find  such  pleasure 
in  solemnly  walking  about  the  streets. 

One  of  the  favourite  places  for  these 
gooly  anies  is  the  Summer  Garden,  which 
was  laid  out  by  Peter  the  Great;  it  is 
adorned  with  hideous  (almost  indecent) 
statues  taken  by  Souvoroff  from  one  of  the 
palaces  of  the  Kings  of  Poland.  Here,  on 
summer  afternoons,  the  amorous  promenade 
about,  casting  eyes  at  one  another,  until 
some  old  svacha  (matchmaker)  brings  the 
different  couples  together.  The  Summer 
Garden  in  also  a  favourite  rendezvous  for 
those  whose  intentions  are  not  so  serious 
that  they  require  a  svacha. 

In  order  to  gain  a  good  idea  of  Russian 
art  and  life,  the  stranger  should  not  fail 
to  visit  the  museum  of  Alexander  III., 
101 


Things  Seen  in  Russia 

located  in  the  beautiful  Mechailoff  Palace. 
This  museum,  or,  rather,  gallery  of  paint- 
ings, was  founded  by  Alexander  III.,  to 
encourage  native  art.  The  sturdy,  manly 
Emperor  was  a  great  believer  in  things 
Russian,  and  even  insisted  on  his  courtiers 
and  friends  speaking  to  him  in  his  native 
tongue,  and  not  in  French,  the  language  of 
the  Court.  Thanks  to  his  patriotic  spirit, 
the  craze  for  everything  foreign  has  a  good 
deal  abated  in  Russia.  To  be  "  Roosky " 
is  now  the  main  idea ;  it  is  no  longer  con- 
sidered good  form  for  an  educated  Russian 
to  be  ignorant  of  his  own  language — which 
was  the  case  a  couple  of  generations  ago, 
especially  among  the  nobility.  In  Moscow 
the  craze  for  being  Russian  is  particularly 
severe,  and  it  is  not  uncommon  to  see  men 
and  women  of  position  walking  about  in 
genuine  Russian  costumes,  and  discarding 
everything  foreign.  In  some  of  the  more 
fanatical  circles  only  the  Russian  tongue  is 
tolerated,  and  the  writer  has  more  than 
once  been  called  to  account  for  daring  to 
speak  German  in  a  real  Russian  house ! 

IO2 


CHAPTER  III 
HOW  THE  GREAT  RUSSIANS  LIVE 


THE  peasantry  of  NoPHiern  Russia,  es- 
pecially those  of  the  governments  of 
St.  Petersburg,  Novgorod,  Tver,  Pskoff, 
Vologda,  and  of  the  Lake  Region — which, 
as  previously  stated,  constituted  an  integral 
part  of  the  old  kingdom  of  Roos  (u  Staraja 
Roos  ") — live  in  comfortable  log-huts,  gener- 
ally only  one  story  in  height.  In  the  Valdai 
Hills,  and  in  the  other  governments  where 
timber  is  plentiful,  the  traveller  not  infre- 
quently comes  across  handsome  buildings 
erected  by  the  peasants  themselves,  without 
even  the  assistance  of  an  architect.  For,  as 
a  rule,  every  Russian  peasant  is  not  only  his 
own  carpenter  and  joiner,  but  an  architect 
and  shipwright  also  on  a  modest  scale.  The 
floor  of  these  two- story  cottages  is  generally 
raised  about  6  to  9  feet  above  the  ground, 
103  E 


Things   Seen  in  Russia 

and  the  intermediate  space  forms  a  cellar, 
which  is  used  for  storing  agricultural  imple- 
ments, furniture,  fishing-tackle,  hunting- 
gear,  and  other  useful  articles. 

Some  of  the  poorer  peasants  also  use  this 
floor  as  a  kind  of  cattle-shed  in  which  their 
cows  and  other  domestic  animals  are  kept 
during  the  long  and  severe  winters.  Whether 
this  contributes  towards  the  health  and 
comfort  of  the  inhabitants  above  I  will  not 
venture  to  say  ;  but  I  must  add  that  the 
Russian  peasant's  ideas  of  hygiene  are  so 
primitive  that,  were  it  not  for  the  plentiful 
and  regular  use  of  the  banya  (steam  bath), 
he  would  contract  so  many  diseases  that  the 
race  would  rapidly  die  out.  The  peasantry 
not  only  keep  cattle  beneath  the  floors  of 
their  houses,  but  poultry  in  their  rooms!  In 
many  cottages  which  I  visited  in  the  govern- 
ment of  Novgorod  the  peasants  had  a  special 
receptacle  for  the  poultry  under  the  great 
stove  or  in  a  corner  of  the  room.  The 
roosters  were  special  favourites,  and  seemed 
to  supply  the  place  of  alarum  clocks,  for  at 
stated  intervals  in  the  early  morning,  at  noon, 
104 


RUSSIAN    PEASANT    AND    HIS    FAMILY,    INCLUDING    THE 
FAVOURITE    ROOSTKR. 

The  roosters  are  special  favourites,  and  seem  to  supply  the  place  of  alarum 
clocks,  for  it  is  the  only  time-piece  they  have. 


How  the  Great  Russians  Live 

and  night,  they  informed  their  owners  of  the 
approximate  time,  much  to  the  annoyance 
of  strangers  and  visitors  who  were  not  accus- 
tomed to  this  novel  kind  of  time-keeper  ! 

As  a  rule  the  cottages  in  Northern  Russia 
are  spacious  and  lofty,  and  lighted  with  the 
aid  of  several  small  windows.  They  usually 
boast  a  chimney  and  a  great  stove  on  which 
the  whole  family  passes  a  great  portion  of 
the  winter,  endeavouring  to  counteract  the 
cold.  During  the  winter  months,  of  course, 
they  have  no  work,  owing  to  the  intense 
frost.  Only  a  Russian  peasant  could  pass 
weeks  and  months  on  a  stove,  living  on  a 
minimum  of  food,  practically  hibernating 
like  a  bear  until  the  genial  warmth  of  the 
spring  sun  loosens  the  frost-bound  earth  and 
makes  field  work  again  possible. 

In  some  villages,  where  the  inhabitants, 
through  residing  in  the  large  towns  or  by 
coming  in  contact  with  West  Europeans, 
have  acquired  vague  ideas  of  propriety,  the 
various  members  of  the  family  sleep  in 
different  corners  of  the  cottage,  called 
oogol.  I  have  myself,  when  passing  a 
107 


Things  Seen  in  Russia 

night  amongst  the  peasants  of  the  Valdai 
Hills,  seen  the  grandparents  in  one  corner, 
the  married  son  and  his  wife  in  a  second,  the 
children  in    a  third,  and  the  maidens  and 
women-folk    in    a    fourth ;    whilst    I,    their 
gost  (guest)  have   been  given  a  big  square 
space  on  a  fur  coat  in  the  centre.     What 
with  the  cackling  of  the  hens,  the  crowing 
of  the  roosters,  the  snoring  of  the  old  folks, 
the  whispering  of  the  girls  and  squalling  of 
the  children,  as  well  as  the  attentions  of  in- 
numerable lively  company — without  which 
no  Russian  peasant's  cottage  is  complete — 
my  slumbers  have  been  far  from   peaceful. 
The  moss  with  which  the  interstices  of  the 
logs  and  boards  are  stuffed  is  responsible  for 
the  appearance  of  these  insects,  but  they  do 
not  seem  to  trouble  the  peasantry,  who  allege 
that  they  give  you  something  to  think  about 
during  the  long  winter  nights,  and  are  also 
healthy,   since  they  abstract  the  bad  blood 
from  the  system.     "What  cannot  be  cured 
must  be  endured,*"  and,  fortified  with  this 
philosophy,  I  soon  got  accustomed  to  the 
attentions  of  these  unbidden  guests. 
108 


GBKAT   RUSSIAN    PEASANTS    RETURNING    FROM    WORK    IN 
THE    FIELDS. 


How  the  Great  Russians  Live 

On  entering  a  Russian  village  one  im- 
mediately becomes  conscious  of  the  semi- 
Oriental  views  regarding  the  alleged  in- 
feriority of  the  fair  sex,  for  the  first  object 
that  meets  the  eye  is  a  post  on  which  is 
written  the  name  of  the  place,  together  with 
the  number  of  souls  and  horses  contained 
within  it.  By  souls,  of  course,  only  men 
and  boys  are  intended  ;  women,  having  so 
souls,  are  left  out  of  the  reckoning  entirely ! 
Every  seven  years  the  communal  lands  are 
divided  amongst  the  peasantry  according  to 
the  number  of  families  and  the  number  of 
males  in  each  family,  but  in  those  families 
where  women  preponderate  the  division  is  a 
very  unsatisfactory  one,  for  the  women 
receive  no  portion. 

But  this  is  not  so  unjust  as  it  appears 
to  be  on  the  surface,  since  the  majority  of 
Russian  women  marry — excepting  the  old 
and  very  plain  ones,  many  of  whom  hide 
their  faces  in  nunneries  and  religious  houses. 
The  position  of  the  women,  owing  to  the 
absence  of  the  men  in  the  towns,  is  fre- 
quently in  Russia  more  important  than  it  is 
in 


Things  Seen  in   Russia 

in  any  other  country,  notwithstanding  that 
they  are  supposed  to  be  deficient  in  a  soul ; 
for  when  their  lords  and  masters  are  away 
they  are  entrusted  with  all  the  rights  and 
privileges  of  the  men.  Then  the  poor  and 
despised  wife  not  only  becomes  the  head  of 
the  household,  but  even  looks  after  the 
farming  and  attends  the  village  parliaments 
(schodke).  In  some  villages,  where  the  soil 
is  very  poor  and  the  men  cannot  possibly 
earn  a  living  from  their  farms  or  plots  of 
land,  the  women  do  practically  all  the  agri- 
cultural work,  but  I  regret  to  say  that, 
owing  to  their  lack  of  physical  strength  and 
the  impossibility  of  being  in  two  places  at 
once,  this  practice  of  shifting  so  much 
responsibility  on  the  shoulders  of  the  weaker 
sex  often  leads  to  disastrous  consequences. 
It  not  infrequently  happens  that  while  the 
women  are  busy  ploughing  or  reaping  in  the 
fields,  sometimes  several  miles  away  from 
their  villages,  some  of  the  little  urchins  or 
mites  that  have  been  left  behind,  all  alone, 
set  fire  to  the  house  or  outbuildings.  As 
most  of  the  houses  are  built  of  wood  and 
112 


WO31EN    HAYMAKING. 

In  some  villages,  where  the  soil  is  very  poor  and  the  men  cannot  ^  possibly 
earn  a  living  from  their  farms  or  plots  of  land,  the  women  do  practically  all 
the  agricultural  work. 


How  the  Great  Russians  Live 

thatched  with  straw,  the  entire  village  before 
long  is  ablaze,  and  the  old  and  infirm  and 
young  are  burnt  to  death  before  they  can  be 
rescued  from  the  flames. 

Should  a  village,  however,  catch  fire  from 
being  struck  by  lightning,  the  villagers  will 
seldom  attempt  to  extinguish  the  flames, 
since  they  regard  the  accident  as  the  will  of 
God.  Even  worse  misfortunes  than  fire  and 
lightning  sometimes  take  place ;  for  whilst 
the  women  are  away  in  the  fields  the  children 
are  frequently  killed  or  maimed,  or,  still 
worse,  the  baby  devoured  by  the  gaunt  hairy 
pigs  which  run  wild  in  most  of  the  villages. 
What  is  still  more  unfortunate,  the  women 
grow  prematurely  old  and  wrinkled  through 
all  the  labour  and  responsibility  being  im- 
posed upon  them.  Agriculture  also  suffers, 
and  frequent  famines  are  the  result  of  this 
unnatural  system  ;  for  the  women,  through 
lack  of  strength  and  want  of  time,  are  unable 
to  plough  and  till  the  land  sufficiently, 
especially  when  they  have  large  families  at 
home  to  attend  to  as  well. 

As   a   rule    the    Russian    baba  —  peasant 


Things  Seen  in  Russia 

women,  as  they  are  ungallantly  called  by  the 
peasants — have  very  large  families.  On  an 
average  in  Central  Russia  they  have  from 
four  to  twelve  children,  but  as  50  per  cent, 
of  them  usually  die,  owing  to  the  severe 
climatic  conditions,  ignorance,  and  supersti- 
tion, the  increase  of  the  population  is  not  so 
large  as  it  otherwise  would  be.  Notwith- 
standing the  loss  of  several  hundred  thousand 
children  a  year  through  cold,  neglect,  and 
hunger,  the  population  is  rapidly  increasing. 
In  spite  of  all  drawbacks,  about  two  to  three 
millions  are  added  to  the  Empire  every  year. 
But  as  there  is  room  for  600,000,000 
people  in  the  Russian  Empire,  this  enormous 
increase  of  the  population  does  not  disturb 
Russian  statesmen,  who  are  even  now  aiding 
and  encouraging  thousands  of  the  peasants 
to  settle  in  Siberia.  As  the  population 
doubles  every  fifty  to  fifty-five  years,  the 
population  in  1985 — without  counting  prob- 
able annexations  of  more  territory — will 
amount  to  400,000,000  souls. 

In  Great  Russia,  where   the   habits   and 
customs   of  the   people   have   been   less  in- 
116 


How  the  Great  Russians  Live 

fluenced  by  their  Tartar  conquerors,  a  girl 
on  marrying  receives  a  dowry  or  portion  in 
the  shape  of  clothes,  cutlery,  cooking  utensils, 
and  cattle,  but  no  real  estate — the  dowry, 
with  the  exception  of  the  wearing  apparel, 
becomes  the  common  property  of  husband 
and  wife,  but  in  the  case  of  the  death  of  the 
latter  the  dowry  is  not  infrequently  returned 
to  her  parents.  In  the  event  of  the  husband 
dying  without  issue  the  wife  receives  as  her 
portion  only  his  wearing  apparel  and  fur 
coat  as  a  soul  reminder,  whilst  all  his  remain- 
ing property  reverts  to  his  parents  or  near 
relations.  There  is,  however,  reason  to 
believe  that  this  is  a  Finnish  and  not  a 
Russian  custom.  It  so  happens  that  if  a 
couple  have  been  long  married  it  is  customary 
to  acknowledge  the  wife  as  the  sole  legatee 
of  the  husband's  property,  especially  when 
there  are  no  children. 

If  the  peasant,  owing  to  his  poverty  and 
his  Spartan  nature,  cannot  offer  you  a  good, 
clean  bed,  at  least  there  is  little  doubt  that 
he  is  one  of  the  most  hospitable  men  in 
Europe — so  far  as  his  scanty  means  will 
117 


Things   Seen  in   Russia 

allow  him.  If  he  is  unable  to  give  you  a 
hearty  meal,  the  cheering  tchai  (tea  made 
with  the  help  of  a  samovar  "  tea-urn  ")  is 
always  at  hand  and  ready  for  the  passing 
stranger.  With  home-made  rusks,  biscuits, 
white  bread  (a  great  delicacy  among  the 
peasants),  preserves  (vareri)  and  the  genial 
chat  of  the  simple  but  good  -  natured 
hosts  of  these  northern  governments,  one 
can  pass  many  a  pleasant  hour.  In 
Sweden  and  Norway  the  peasantry  used 
to  be  equally  hospitable,  but  I  fear  that 
the  struggle  for  life  and  the  commercial 
spirit  has  much  weakened  this  particular 
virtue.  \ 

I  shall  never  forget  how  bravely  the  un- 
selfish peasantry  behaved  during  the  great 
famine  of  1891-92,  when  Count  Leo  Ljevitch 
Tolstoi,  Count  Bobrinsky  and  I  visited  the 
stricken  governments  of  Rjazan  and  Toula. 
Though  they  were  perishing  in  thousands 
from  hunger  and  disease — caused  by  in- 
sufficient nourishment — they  brdught  out 
their  last  few  pieces  of  sugar  to  offer  to  my 
exalted  companions,  for  with  the  Russian 
118 


PEASANT    WOMEN. 

As  a  rule,  the  Russian  labee,  or  peasant  women,  have  very  large  families  : 
on  an  average  from  four  to  twelve  children  ;  but  as  fifty  per  cent,  of  them 
usually  die,  owing  to  the  severe  climatic  conditions,  etc.,  the  increase  of  the 
population  is  not  so  large  as  it  otherwise  would  be. 


How  the  Great  Russians  Live 

peasants   hospitality   is    not    only   a   social 
obligation,  but  a  religious  duty. 

On  these  occasions,  before  partaking  of 
their  frugal  fare,  our  simple  host  would 
reverently  stand  up  and  cross  himself  before 
the  holy  ikons,  before  which  a  small  lamp  is 
always  burning.  As  a  rule  the  ikon  is 
placed  on  a  small  bracket  in  one  corner  of 
the  room.  Around  the  ikon  of  the  Saviour 
or  the  Virgin  Mary  there  are  generally 
grouped  several  smaller  ikons,  or  a  number 
of  highly-coloured  pictures  showing  the 
rapid  descent  of  the  evil  man  to  the  nether 
regions,  or  the  slow  journey  of  the  righteous 
to  the  mansions  of  the  blest  in  the  world 
beyond.  All  these  pictures  bring  forcibly 
to  one's  mind  the  fact  that  the  Russian 
peasant,  though  living  with  his  body  in  the 
nineteenth  century,  is,  as  far  as  his  mental 
and  spiritual  nature  go,  a  child  of  the 
Middle  Ages.  The  pictures  of  wicked 
devils  roasting,  boiling,  and  torturing  the 
wicked  in  the  nether  world  fills  his  mind 
with  reverence  and  fear,  and  undoubtedly 
keeps  him  from  much  mischief,  since  this  is 
121 


Things   Seen  in   Russia 

the  only  way  that  appeals  to  his  crude  and 
simple  nature. 

On  fete  days  and  holidays,  "  when  it  is  a 
great  sin  to  work,"  the  ikons  are  hung  with 
embroidered  towels,  paper  flowers,  tinsel, 
and  other  ornaments,  and  lighted  by  wax 
candles,  which  are  usually  brought  from  the 
nearest  church  or  monastery — after  being 
blessed  by  the  priest  or  the  monks. 
Frequently,  when  a  peasant  becomes  well- 
to-do,  he  shows  his  gratitude  by  spending 
hundreds  and  thousands  of  roubles  in 
adorning  his  cottage  or  house  with  beautiful 
ikons,  studded  with  pearls  or  precious 
stones.  If  he  is  of  a  mundane  turn  of  mind, 
he  uses  costly  mirrors  instead,  which  inspire 
the  simple  villagers  with  awe  and  admiration 
for  their  fortunate  possessor.  The  owner  of 
a  gramophone  or  a  piano  is,  however,  re- 
garded with  an  equal  degree  of  respect. 
The  rich  merchants  (kooptzee),  generally  pf 
peasant  origin,  often  have  their  own  votive 
chapels  attached  to  their  houses,  and  hire 
the  services  of  a  priest  to  officiate  on  fete 
days  and  holidays.  These  private  chapels, 
122 


RETURNING    FROM    HAYMAKING. 

The  lot  of  the  Russian  peasant  woman,  or  baba,  is  frequently  a  very  hard 
one,  for,  owing  to  the  enforced  absence  of  the  men  in  the  towns,  she  has  not 
only  to  look  after  her  numerous  offspring,  but  to  see  to  the  farming  and 
attend  the  village  parliaments. 


How  the  Great  Russians  Live 

with  their  beautiful  ikons,  silver  candle- 
sticks, crucifixes,  and  wax  candles  of  all 
sizes  and  shapes,  are  invariably  most 
picturesque. 

In  Central  Russia,  where  timber  is  ex- 
tremely scarce,  many  of  the  izbe  (cottages 
inhabited  by  the  peasantry)  are  wretched 
hovels,  hardly  good  enough  for  cattle.  Some 
which  I  visited  with  Count  Demetrius 
Bobrinsky — who,  by  the  way,  through  his 
unselfish  generosity,  saved  many  hundreds  of 
peasants  from  starvation  and  disease — were 
even  unprovided  with  chimneys.  The  smoke 
escaped  through  crevices  in  the  roof  or 
cracks  over  the  door.  How  any  European 
could  live  under  such  vile  and  insanitary 
conditions,  in  such  a  terrible  climate,  passed 
my  comprehension.  What  with  the  stuffy, 
foul  atmosphere,  the  damp  floor  made  of 
beaten  clay,  the  poor  food  (rye-bread, 
cabbage,  mushrooms  and  salt),  and  the  foul 
atmosphere,  the  mortality,  even  in  ordinary 
years,  is  very  high.  But  these  terrible 
conditions  do  not  apply  to  the  whole  of  the 
country,  and  there  are  millions  of  peasants 
125 


Things   Seen  in  Russia 

who  live  under  conditions  which  our  own 
people  of  the  manufacturing  towns  might 
well  envy.  This  especially  refers  to  Little 
Russia  and  the  Kuban  Province,  where  the 
soil  is  extremely  fertile. 

Notwithstanding  the  terrible  poverty  of  a 
great  number  of  the  Russian  agricultural 
classes,  they  are  exceedingly  particular  in 
what  they  eat,  especially  during  the  fasts, 
which  are  both  numerous  and  trying.  Many 
of  the  peasants  whom  I  have  met  would  die, 
and  indeed  have  died,  rather  than  break 
their  fast  or  eat  anything  forbidden  or 
unclean.  I  remember  only  too  well  that 
during  the  famine  of  1891-92,  when  about 
250,000  peasants  perished  in  twenty-seven 
governments,  many  of  these  simple  but  God- 
fearing people  died  from  hunger  rather  than 
eat  horse-flesh,  which  is  forbidden  in  the 
Bible.  The  Tartars,  however,  who  had  no 
such  scruples,  bought  up  the  horses  from  the 
starving  Russians  for  five  or  ten  shillings 
each,  and  waxed  fat  on  their  food,  while  the 
superstitious  peasants  died  like  flies  around 
them.  The  little  money  the  peasants  re- 
126 


RUSSIAN    ERRAND-BOY    AND    KNIFE-GRINDER. 

Russian  boys  are  very  precocious.  One  frequently  sees  them  when  quite 
small  earning  their  living  as  knife-grinders,  pedlars,  droshki-drivers,  and 
errand-boys. 


How  the  Great  Russians  Live 

ceived  for  their  starved  horses  did  not  last 
long.  It  was  mostly  spent  in  purchasing  rye, 
which  they  turned  into  food  by  mixing  it 
with  a  weed  called  lebeda. 

Black  rye-bread  is  the  staple  diet  of  the 
Russian  peasants,  and  if  they  can  be  sure  of 
this  necessity  of  life,  together  with  a  little 
cabbage  and  tea,  they  are  quite  satisfied,  for 
they  are  so  constituted  that  they  can  subsist 
and  keep  in  good  health  on  next  to  nothing. 
The  Russian  peasant  is  so  hardy  and  so 
frugal  that  in  times  of  famine  he  can  very 
well  subsist  on  a  penny  or  two  per  day,  with 
which  he  buys  rye-bread,  the  staff  of  life. 
The  peasants  are  so  fond  of  this  kind  of 
bread  that  I  have  actually  seen  them  cry 
when  they  have  been  forced  to  eat  white 
bread,  which  they  say  does  not  satisfy  their 
hunger  or  maintain  their  strength. 

The  majority  of  the  Russian  peasants 
think  themselves  well  off  if  they  can  always 
be  certain  of  getting  black  bread,  cabbage, 
salt,  brick  tea,  mushrooms  and  Jcvass  (a 
fermented  liquor  made  of  stale  bread).  But 
those  who  are  prosperous  have  a  more  varied 
129 


Things  Seen  in  Russia 

diet,  consisting  of  fish,  cabbage,  milk,  eggs, 
porridge,  barley,  buckwheat,  honey,  and  wild 
berries.  Meat  is  a  luxury  which  they  seldom 
taste,  or  even  require,  so  long  as  they  can 
obtain  plenty  of  fish,  fruit,  vegetables  and 
bread. 

There  are  some  kinds  of  meat  which,  on 
principle,  the  peasants  will  never  touch. 
For  instance,  they  consider  it  a  very  great 
sin  to  eat  bear's  meat,  "  for  the  bear  was 
once  a  human  being,  but  he  was  turned  into 
an  animal  for  his  sins."  It  is  also  looked 
upon  as  sinful  to  eat  reindeer,  because  this 
animal  is  of  semi-divine  origin.  It  is  also 
uncleanly  to  eat  hares,  "  for  rabbits  and 
hares  are  vermin."  Swans  must  not  be 
eaten,  and  to  kill  one  is  a  great  sin,  "  because 
a  swan  resembles  a  beautiful  woman  and  is 
near  to  God."  Then,  too,  "  the  complaint  of 
the  relict  of  the  defunct  swan  will  always  be 
heard."  Par  consequence,  it  is  a  lesser  sin  to 
kill  a  pair  of  swans.  It  is  also  reprehensible 
to  eat  pig,  although  this  is  not  always  the 
case,  for  among  the  Little  Russians  fat  pork 
is  one  of  the  favourite  articles  of  diet. 
130 


How  the  Great  Russians  Live 

Pigeons  and  doves  are  also  sacred,  and  woe 
betide  the  unbelieving  foreigner  or  German 
who  touches  a  feather  of  these  sacred  birds, 
"  for  did  not  the  Holy  Ghost  descend  in  the 
form  of  a  dove  ?"  Whether  sacred  or  not,  I 
am  pretty  certain  that  many  of  these  holy 
birds  find  their  way  into  the  pies  of  the 
unbelieving  foreigner  in  the  large  towns, 
where  they  are  sold  as  rapchiks  (wood- 
grouse) . 

The  marriage,  birth,  and  burial  customs 
among  the  Great  Russians  are  both  interest- 
ing and  exceedingly  curious.  Some  of  them 
are  derived  from  the  old  days  of  the  free 
Republic  of  Novgorod  the  Great — "  My  Lord 
Novgorod,"  as  it  was  quaintly  called.  Others 
are  clearly  of  Finnish  origin,  for  similar 
customs  and  usages  prevail  among  the 
Finnish  tribes  of  the  Volga. 

As  a  rule,  in  old-fashioned  Russian  families 
the  father's  will  is  law,  and  he  wields  within 
the  confines  of  his  narrow  sphere  patriarchal, 
if  not  autocratic,  power.  The  new-fashioned 
ideas  about  the  freedom  and  independence 
of  young  people  do  not  appeal  to  him. 

131  F 


Things  Seen  in  Russia 

What  he  wills  is  law  to  his  immediate 
family.  No  son  or  daughter  is  allowed 
to  marry  without  his  or  her  parents'  per- 
mission, and,  in  choosing  a  wife  for  his  son 
or  daughter,  physical  gifts,  and  a  capacity 
for  hard  work,  are  the  principal  considera- 
tions affecting  the  father's  choice.  In  most 
Russian  villages  the  work  of  bringing  to- 
gether the  young  couples  is  managed,  for  a 
consideration,  by  an  old  woman  (svachd), 
who  makes  it  her  chief  business  in  life  to 
learn  all  about  eligible  candidates.  Whether 
the  young  couples  are  happy  or  rightly 
mated  is  quite  a  secondary  question  to  the 
fathers. 

On  remonstrating  with  an  old  Russian 
peasant  who  had  married  his  son  off  in  a 
summary  fashion  without  consulting  his 
inclination,  the  old  fellow  turned  upon  me 
with  wrath  and  indignation,  exclaiming, 
"  Kakoe  emoo  za  dyelo  ?"  ("  What  has  that  to 
do  with  him  ?  He  has  nothing  to  say  in  the 
matter.  It  is  my  business  P) 

To  be   a   good  workwoman  is  the  main 
thing.     However  ugly  a   prospective  bride 
132 


Copyright  Stereo,  H.  C.  White  Co. 

A    RUSSIAN    MARKET 


How  the  Great  Russians  Live 

may  be,  it  will  not  concern  her  husband, 
a  drunken  lout  very  probably.  These 
marriages  of  convenience  generally  end  well, 
and  will  continue  so  to  do  until  the  peasants 
are  more  cultured,  for  both  man  and  wife 
are  fully  occupied  in  earning  a  bare  liveli- 
hood. But  when  the  husband  is  a  drunkard 
and  the  wife  a  shrew,  which,  alas !  is  too 
frequently  the  case,  these  enforced  unions 
lead  to  years  of  misery,  frequently  terminat- 
ing in  tragedy.  Thus  it  happens  that  the 
husband,  maddened  and  embittered  by  his 
shrewish  mate,  takes  to  drink,  and  ends  in 
either  cleaving  her  head  with  an  axe — the 
favourite  weapon  of  the  Russian  peasant — 
or  half  kicking  her  to  death  with  his  heavy 
top-boots.  Should  the  partner  of  his  bliss 
by  chance  happen  to  survive  this  brutal 
treatment,  she  not  infrequently  rounds  on 
her  lord  and  master  by  mixing  a  little  white 
powder  in  his  tea  when  he  is  too  intoxi- 
cated to  notice  it.  The  husband  dies  in 
consequence,  and  the  wife  is  deported 
to  the  mines  of  Siberia,  or  to  the  frozen 
Tundras,  there  to  work  in  chains  until  a 


Things  Seen  in  Russia 

merciful  death  relieves  her  of  her  life's 
burden. 

Husband-poisoning  is  so  common  among 
the  Russian  peasantry  that  I  have  known  as 
many  as  a  hundred  women  deported  from 
Odessa  at  a  time  for  this  awful  offence, 
which,  unfortunately,  will  continue  so  long 
as  the  Holy  Orthodox  Church  has  the  power 
to  bind  men  and  women  together  in  fetters 
more  strong  than  are  for  the  supposed  good 
of  the  State  and  Church.  Divorce  is  practi- 
cally unobtainable  among  the  peasantry, 
and  as  this  is  the  case,  we  cannot  well  be 
surprised  at  the  frequency  of  conjugal 
murders. 

As  soon  as  a  son  leaves  the  parental  roof 
and  sets  up  for  himself,  the  paternal  jurisdic- 
tion is  at  an  end.  Should  he,  however,  leave 
his  home  without  his  father's  permission,  his 
future  inheritance  will  entirely  depend  on  the 
will  or  caprice  of  his  father,  a  condition 
which  would  not  otherwise  apply.  In  the 
event  of  the  death  of  the  latter,  the  sons 
ordinarily  divide  the  property  in  equal 
shares.  This  is  probably  a  survival  of  the 

136 


How  the  Great  Russians  Live 

old  Norse  law  of  Oodel  (the  introduction  of 
which  by  the  Varangian  Grand  Dukes  split 
up  Russia,  and  ultimately  caused  its  downfall 
and  ruin  by  the  Tartars,  who  took  full 
advantage  of  the  discord  arising  from  the 
division) . 

On  the  cutting  up  of  an  estate  the  women 
fare  very  badly,  for  they  usually  receive  no 
portion  of  the  inheritance.  They  can  only 
claim  a  share  when  all  the  male  heirs  have 
become  extinct.  The  Russian  peasant  is  no 
believer  in  women's  rights,  and,  according  to 
his  old-fashioned  ideas,  the  man,  who  is 
usually  physically  and  mentally  stronger 
than  the  woman,  should  take  the  first  place 
in  the  household.  This  feeling  is  so  firmly 
engrafted  in  his  mind  that  he  is  con- 
tinually quoting  a  number  of  proverbs  to 
support  his  authority.  According  to  his 
opinion,  woman  does  not  possess  a  soul, 
only  steam.  Another  proverb  concerning 
her  says,  "  Long  hair,  short  wit."  The 
proverbs  concerning  women  are  so  uncom- 
plimentary that  in  order  not  to  wound  the 
feeling  of  my  readers  I  will  not  quote  them. 
J37 


COSSACKS   PRACTISING   THE    M  DSHIGITOFFKA 


The  "  Dshigitoffka"  are  esquestrian  exercises  practised  by  the  Cossacks, 
who  are  probably  the  most  expert  horsemen  in  the  world.  There  arc 
about  160,000  Cossacks,  and  the  majority  of  them  are  freeholders  01 
small  yeomen. 


CHAPTER  IV 
WHITE-STONED    MOSCOW 

THE  HEART  OF  RUSSIA. 

THE  central  industrial  region,  which  in- 
cludes the  manufacturing  governments 
of  Moscow,  Tver,  Jaroslaff,  Kostroma, 
Nishni- Novgorod,  Ryazan  and  Toola, 
possesses  a  poor  soil,  which  naturally 
compels  the  inhabitants  to  turn  their 
attentions  to  commerce.  This  is  perhaps 
the  reason  why  Moscow  has  always  been 
famed  for  the  enterprising  spirit  of  its 
merchants,  who,  owing  to  the  grant  of 
monopolies  and  the  protective  system,  make 
tremendous  profits  at  the  expense  of  the 
people.  The  cotton,  cloth,  silk,  and  wool 
industries,  to  say  nothing  of  boiler-works, 
breweries,  printing  plants,  and  iron  foundries, 
all  tend  to  increase  the  wealth  of  this  ancient 
141 


Things  Seen  in  Russia 

and  interesting  city.  An  idea  of  its  pros- 
perity may  be  obtained  from  the  fact  that 
its  mills  annually  produce  goods  valued  at 
over  ^20,000,000,  while  the  total  trade  turn- 
over exceeds  ^00,000,000. 

( e  Ach,  Moskva,  Moskva  !  byelaja  kamennaja  Moskva  !" 
("  Oli,  Moscow,  Moscow  !  white-stoned  Moscow  !") 

the  Muscovites  sing  of  their  beloved  and 
beautiful  city — beloved  not  only  on  account 
of  its  wealth  and  picturesqueness,  but  also  on 
account  of  the  great  role  it  has  played  in  the 
history  of  Russia.  Well  may  the  people  call 
it  "  Little  Mother  Moscow,"  for  of  all  the 
cities  it  has  been  in  the  past  a  refuge  and  a 
source  of  strength  and  consolation  to  the 
Russians  in  their  tragic  and  terrible 
struggles. 

Moscow,  which  occupies  an  area  of  about 
forty  square  miles,  is  charmingly  situated  on 
seven  hills  and  on  the  banks  of  the  little 
River  Moscow,  called  in  Russian  "  Moskva. " 
Although  this  stream  is  only  about  fifty 
miles  in  length,  there  are  few  rivers  in  the 
world,  with  the  exception  of  the  Tiber, 
142 


White-stoned  Moscow 

which  have  drained  such  torrents  of  human 
blood.  When  one  thinks  of  the  countless 
thousands  who  have  fallen  along  the  banks 
of  the  Moskva  and  around  the  white  and  red 
walls  of  the  Kremlin,  this  beautiful  city 
involuntarily  reminds  one  of  a  whitened 
sepulchre,  full  to  the  brim  of  human  bones. 
But  those  who  enter  the  busy  streets,  teeming 
with  life  and  movement,  and  all  the  outward 
signs  of  prosperity,  quickly  forget  the  sombre 
and  sanguinary  picture  of  a  long  past. 

There  are  many  cities  in  Russia  older  and 
perhaps  more  interesting  historically  than 
"Mother  Moscow,"  but  she  is,  as  it  were, 
the  heart  and  centre  of  the  Russian  people. 
Moscow  was  first  heard  of  in  1147  as  the 
meeting-place  of  Prince  Svyatoslaff  of 
Tchernigoff,  Prince  Andrew  Bogolubsky, 
and  Jury  Dolgorouki — the  son  of  the  Grand 
Duke  Vladimir  of  Kieff  and  of  Guida, 
daughter  of  the  brave  but  unfortunate 
Harold,  King  of  England. 

In  1237  we  again  hear  of  Moscow — as  a 
little  wooden  town,  surrounded  by  wooden 
palisades.  In  this  helpless  state,  it  was 
H3 


Things   Seen  in  Russia 

attacked  by  the  terrible  Tartar  General, 
Batir,  who  had  previously  taken  Kieff  and 
many  other  Russian  towns,  after  butchering 
their  inhabitants  without  mercy.  Nor  did 
Moscow  escape  a  similar  fate,  though  she 
rose  again  out  of  blood  and  ashes  to  become 
a  place  of  considerable  importance.  Soon 
her  prosperity  excited  the  envy  of  the 
Princes  of  Tver,  who  soon  became  involved 
in  civil  war  with  the  rising  city.  The  long 
and  desperate  struggle  between  the  two  rival 
centres  ended  in  the  destruction  of  Tver  and 
the  slaughter  of  about  90,000  citizens  by 
Ivan  the  Terrible,  who  wished  to  unite  all 
the  Russian  Grand  -  Duchies  under  his 
sceptre  and  crush  out  their  independence 
and  freedom. 

In  1353  Moscow  was  devastated  by  the 
Black  Death,  which  not  only  carried  off 
Simeon  the  Proud,  the  Grand  Duke  of 
Moscow,  but  also  two-thirds  of  the  popula- 
tion. 

In  1386  the  city,  together  with  the 
entire  government,  already  terribly  weakened 
by  the  Battle  of  Kulekoff,  was  attacked  by 
144 


H     E 


White-stoned  Moscow 

the  Tartar  Khan  Tochtamish,  and  captured 
after  an  heroic  defence. 

What  with  the  attacks  of  the  Tartars, 
the  different  plagues,  pestilence,  revolts, 
fires,  invasions  and  other  misfortunes,  it  is 
indeed  remarkable  that  such  a  city  as 
Moscow  exists !  But,  phoenix-like,  it  rose 
out  of  its  own  ashes,  after  each  succeeding 
catastrophe,  more  beautiful  and  vigorous 
than  before. 

Excepting  the  Kremlin  and  a  few  old 
churches  and  monasteries,  there  is  very  little 
left  of  the  Moscow  of  Ivan  the  Terrible. 

What  we  have  before  us  is  practically  a 
new  city,  dating  from  the  beginning  of  the 
nineteenth  century. 

A  more  beautiful  sight  than  White-stoned 
Moscow,  as  seen  from  the  Sparrow  Hills, 
one  could  hardly  imagine  !  Notwithstanding 
that  the  majority  of  the  houses  are  of 
European  design,  a  strong  Oriental  impres- 
sion is  supplied  by  innumerable  mosque-like 
churches,  towers  and  minarets  situated  at 
every  point  of  the  compass.  The  influence 
of  the  Tartar  conquests  has  riot  only  left 


Things  Seen  in  Russia 

its  mark  on  the  architecture  and  outward 
features  of  Moscow,  but  also  to  some  extent 
on  the  character  of  the  people. 

The  first  sight  of  «  Mother  Moscow  "  fills 
one  with  admiration  and  astonishment.  It 
is  really  so  Oriental  in  appearance  that 
it  reminds  one  of  Delhi,  Agra,  or  some 
Indian  city.  The  embattled  walls  of  the 
Kremlin,  surmounted  by  lofty  towers  and 
bastions ;  the  historic  gate  of  the  Saviour ; 
the  great  belfry  built  by  Boris  Godounoff, 
the  Tartar  usurper ;  the  Cathedral  of  the 
Saviour,  with  its  gilded  dome  glittering 
against  an  azure  sky  ;  the  Church  of  Ivan 
the  Terrible,  and  the  numerous  monasteries 
and  churches,  bright  with  silver  and  gold — 
all  help  to  make  a  picture,  which  once  seen 
will  never  be  forgotten. 

Although  Moscow  is  "  a  pure  Russian  and 
Orthodox  city,"  as  it  is  described  by  its 
citizens,  one  must  not  lose  sight  of  the  fact 
that  it  is  one  of  the  largest  industrial 
centres  in  the  world.  Its  mills,  factories, 
and  workshops,  mostly  situated  on  the  out- 
skirts and  in  the  environs,  not  only  manu- 
148 


Copyright  Stereo,  H.  C.  White  Co.  London. 

VIEW    OF   THE    KREMLIN    AND    THE    TOWER    OF    IVAN    THE    GREAT 
FROM    THE    RIVER   MOSKVA. 

The  first  sight  of  "Mother  Moscow"  fills  one  with  admiration  and 
astonishment.  It  is  really  so  Oriental  in  appearance  that  it  reminds  one 
of  Delhi,  Agra,  or  some  Indian  city. 


White-stoned  Moscow 

facture  goods  for  the  hundred  and  sixty 
million  subjects  of  the  Tsar,  but  for  millions 
of  the  inhabitants  of  Siberia,  Mongolia, 
Manchuria,  and  Central  Asia.  The  English 
have  been  called  a  "  nation  of  shopkeepers  " 
by  Napoleon  ;  but  this  term  of  reproach  or 
praise  is  far  more  applicable  to  the  Musco- 
vites, for  in  Moscow,  almost  everyone,  from 
the  highest  to  the  lowest,  seems  to  be, 
directly  or  indirectly,  interested  in  commerce. 
From  the  wealthy  merchant,  who  counts  his 
capital  in  millions  of  pounds,  and  lives  in  a 
corner  of  his  sumptuous  mansion,  to  the 
poor  pedlar,  whose  whole  stock-in-trade 
could  be  bought  up  for  a  rouble,  everyone 
buys  and  sells.  This  peculiar  trait  of  the 
Muscovite  seems  to  be  of  far  from  recent 
origin.  The  foreign  traveller,  De  Rodes, 
who  visited  Moscow  in  1653,  mentions  it : 
"  It  is  sufficiently  well  known  that  all  the 
enactments  of  this  country  are  directed 
towards  commerce  and  trade,  something 
one  confirms  by  daily  experience.  Here 
everyone,  from  the  highest  to  the  lowest, 
thinks  only  of  earning  something." 


Things  Seen  in  Russia 

In  this  respect  the  Russian  nation  is  more 
active  than  all  the  others  taken  together. 
Kelburger,  another  foreign  traveller,  writes  : 
u  All  the  inhabitants  of  Moscow,  from  the 
most  powerful  to  the  most  insignificant,  love 
trade.  The  city  contains  many  more  shops 
than  Amsterdam.  What  is  most  remark- 
able— and  also  most  commendable — in  Mos- 
cow is,  that  there  are  special  streets  and 
markets  for  every  kind  of  goods,  commencing 
with  the  dearest  and  descending  to  the 
cheapest.  The  traders  in  silk  have  their 
especial  rooms,  just  as  the  traders  in  lacquer, 
boots,  cloth,  and  leather,  have  theirs." 

The  character  of  the  city  and  its  citizens 
has  not  changed,  and  in  Moscow  the  visitor 
will  see  some  of  the  finest  bazaars  in 
the  world,  with  thousands  of  shops  like 
the  Passages  and  Arcades,  containing  every 
variety  of  goods  imaginable,  both  Russian 
and  foreign.  The  finest  bazaar  is  the 
New  Commercial  Bazaar,  fronting  the  Red 
Square,  a  former  scene  of  bloodshed,  execu- 
tions and  torture  during  the  reign  of  Ivan 
the  Terrible.  But  the  sad  and  terrible  past 


Copyright  Stereo,  II.  C.  White  Co. 

GATEWAY    TO    THE 


KETAI-GOROD. 


The  Ketai~Gorod(£hz.  Chinese  Town)  is  the  principal  commercial  quarter, 
containing  the  Exchange,  the  Rows,  or  Bazaars,  etc. 


White-stoned  Moscow 

is  now  forgotten  in  the  busy  buzz  of  mer- 
chants from  all  parts  of  Asia  and  Russia 
buying  and  selling  goods,  or  rushing  back- 
wards and  forwards  to  carry  out  their 
orders. 

A  visit  to  the  New  Commercial  Rows, 
built  in  the  old  Russian  style  of  architecture, 
gives  one  a  good  idea  of  the  enormous  trade 
carried  on  by  the  merchant-princes  of  the 
city. 

Their  methods  of  doing  business  and  their 
commercial  ethics  are  peculiarly  Oriental, 
and  show  more  than  anything  else  the 
Tartar  strain  in  the  Russian  race.  Mer- 
chants, unless  they  have  come  much  in 
contact  with  West  European  men  of  busi- 
ness, have  no  fixed  price  for  their  wares. 
They  get  all  they  can!  The  unsuspecting 
foreigner,  believing  himself  in  Europe,  some- 
times comes  off  very  badly  in  these  transac- 
tions. Like  our  friend  the  drosJci  driver,  or 
isvostchik,  the  Muscovite  merchant  generally 
asks  about  twice  the  price  he  expects  to 
receive.  Should  he  by  chance  gain  his 
demand,  it  will  cause  him,  also  like  the 
155 


Things   Seen  in  Russia 

isvostchiJc,  the  greatest  chagrin  he  did  not 
ask  more !  The  best  plan  is  to  offer  a 
typical  Muscovite  trader  half  what  he  asks, 
and  then  gradually  bargain  until  you  have 
got  him  to  accept  a  fair  price. 

But  if  you  wish  to  rise  high  in  the  favour 
of  the  Muscovite  (Kooptze),  who,  despite 
his  peasant  exterior,  may  be  exceedingly 
wealthy,  you  would  do  wisely  to  invite 
him  to  the  nearest  trader  (tea-shop),  and 
there  talk  shop  and  business  until  you  come 
to  terms. 

Moscow  is  a  city  of  millionaires  !  It  must 
be  remembered,  however,  that  their  millions 
are  generally  counted  in  roubles,  and  not 
in  pounds!  Among  the  wealthy  manu- 
facturers and  capitalists  may  be  mentioned 
Mamontoff,  Cloodoff,  Savve  Morozoff,  Von 
Dervis,  and  many  others.  Morozoff  alone 
employs  60,000  workmen  in  his  numerous 
-cotton-mills  in  Moscow,  Tver,  and  other 
manufacturing  centres. 

It  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  many  of  these 
kooptzee,  or  peasant  merchants,  are  unable 
to  write,  but  notwithstanding  this  drawback 


White-stoned  Moscow 

they  manage  to  carry  their  enormous  busi- 
ness transactions  in  their  heads.  There  is 
little  doubt  that  many  of  the  real  Russian 
peasants  are  exceedingly  intelligent,  and, 
given  the  opportunity,  they  can  soon  become 
merchants,  manufacturers,  bankers,  or  even 
occupy  civic  and  high  official  positions  with 
ability. 

If  St.  Petersburg  is  a  city  of  appearances, 
Moscow  is  one  of  realities.  The  good 
orthodox  Muscovites  in  their  hearts  despise 
Petersburg  and  its  natives.  They  say  that 
the  capital  is  neither  fish,  flesh,  nor  fowl — 
not  a  foreign  city  and  not  a  Russian  one, 
like  Holy  Mother  Moscow.  There  is  some 
ground  for  this  feeling  of  superiority  ;  for,  as 
a  rule,  the  Muscovite  is  richer  than  he  appears 
to  be,  while  the  Petersburger  has  such  ex- 
pensive tastes  that  he  ^is  usually  poorer  than 
he  looks.  Petersburg  is,  in  fact,  a  city  of 
appearances,  and  just  before  the  monthly 
"  Pay~day "  comes  round  the  Government 
official — who  is  as  conspicuous  in  the  capital 
as  the  merchant  is  in  Moscow — generally 
finds  himself  "  on  the  rocks/1  Were  it  not 

157  G 


Things  Seen  in  Russia 

for  that  friendly  institution,  "  The  Lombard," 
which  is  practically  a  pawn-shop  on  a  large 
scale,  it  would  be  almost  impossible  for 
him  to  survive ;  for  generally  on  the  20th, 
the  Government  pay-day,  he  is  "  on  the 
rocks.*" 

The  genuine  Muscovite,  or  native  of 
Moscow  in  this  sense,  does  not  believe  in 
an  ostentatious  display.  The  people  even 
pride  themselves,  when  well-to-do,  in  going 
about  in  clothes  of  peasant  cut,  although, 
perhaps,  of  somewhat  better  material.  How 
frequently  it  happens  that  the  simple 
peasant- merchant,  attired  in  his  long  blue 
leaf  tan  and  top-boots — he  who  invites  you 
to  the  nearest  trader  for  a  cup  of  tea — is 
worth  millions,  while  the  gilded  front,  who 
dashes  about  the  town  in  a  costly  equipage, 
dines  at  the  best  hotels,  and  drinks  cham- 
pagne ad  lib.,  would  not  be  worth  a  sou 
if  sold  up !  Such  is  life,  everywhere,  perhaps! 

The  Russian  peasant- merchant,  who,  owing 
to  his  ignorance  and  low  origin,  is  not  over- 
scrupulous in  business,  has,  nevertheless, 
many  excellent  qualities. 

158 


•£.& 

11 

II 


|£ 


£  [/?• 


t   .-  >> 


E 

o 
fc 

w 
= 

H 


White-stoned  Moscow 

Should  he  by  chance  take  a  personal  liking 
to  a  customer,  especially  if  he  is  what  he 
terms  "  a  sympathetic  person,"  that  customer 
is  a  made  man.  Russian  commercial  men, 
unlike  those  of  other  nations,  take  a  pride 
in  doing  business  from  sympathy — and  anti- 
pathy !  Once  they  are  rich,  they  frequently 
prefer  to  take  a  very  small  profit,  rather  than 
do  business  with  men  they  dislike,  even 
though  the  latter  offer  them  a  better  price 
than  the  "  sympathetic  "  customers.  It  pays 
in  Russia  to  assume  this  virtue — "sym- 
pathy " — even  if  one  possesses  it  not !  The 
peasant- merchants  will  undoubtedly  often 
give  a  man  a  good  order,  or  a  chance  to 
make  a  fortune,  simply  because  he  is  what 
they  call  sympateechno !  I  myself  knew 
an  Englishman  who  amassed  a  large  fortune 
in  Russia  on  account  of  his  "  sympathy." 
He  suffered  himself  to  drink  tea  all  day  long 
in  the  stuffy  traders  (tea-houses),  while  his 
merchant  friends  talked  incessantly  about 
goods,  shares,  and  houses.  Many  of  these 
traders,  be  it  said,  are  fitted  up  luxuriously, 
and  possess  large  organs  or  musical-boxes 
161 


Things   Seen   in   Russia 

worked  by  clock-work.  These  musical-boxes, 
or  organs,  which  usually  play  the  sweet  and 
plaintive  Russian  national  airs,  are  frequently 
remarkable  instruments,  and  cost  as  much  as 
,£300  each. 

As  a  rule  Russian  merchants  of  the  lower 
classes  make  great  fortunes,  not  so  much 
through  their  enterprise  as  through  their 
remarkable  capacity  for  saving.  A  peasant 
who  makes  only  1  rouble  (2s.)  a  day  often 
sets  aside  Is.  6d.,  for  he  is  able  to  live 
comfortably  on  6d.  a  day.  During  the 
great  famines  which  periodically  scourge 
the  country,  I  have  myself  known  peasants 
to  keep  life  in  their  bodies  on  5  copeks  (Id.) 
a  day.  As  rye-bread,  their  principal  diet, 
only  costs  about  a  halfpenny  a  pound,  and 
as  each  man  can  subsist  on  £  pounds  of 
rye  bread  in  bad  times,  there  is  little  fear 
of  the  Russian  peasant  starving — if  he  will 
only  work  and  cultivate  his  land  in  a  rational 
manner.  But  what  with  Saints1  days,  holidays, 
vodki,  cigarette-smoking,  music,  the  love  of 
pleasures,  and  gross  ignorance  and  supersti- 
tion to  which  poor  Ivan  Ivanovitch  is  un- 
162 


White-stoned  Moscow 

usually  prone,  it  is  not  surprising  that 
millions  of  improvident,  ignorant,  and 
drunken  agriculturists  come  to  want  when- 
ever there  is  a  failure  of  the  crops. 

When  they  are  thrifty,  saving,  and  indus- 
trious, they  frequently  amass  enormous 
fortunes.  I  myself  was  intimately  ac- 
quainted with  one  who  was  worth  about 
£3,000,000.  On  festive  occasions  I  used  to 
meet  at  his  house  many  far  richer  men, 
accompanied  by  their  buxom  wives  and 
comely  daughters,  bedecked  in  diamonds 
and  jewels  and  lace  worth  thousands  of 
pounds.  The  worthy  merchant  of  my  ac- 
quaintance, who  was  also  a  well-known 
manufacturer,  was  the  happy  father  of 
twenty-one  children,  each  of  whom  had  a 
settlement  of  a  million  roubles  (£100,000). 
Besides  the  capital  mentioned,  he  possesses  a 
large  cotton-mill  with  3,000  workmen,  and 
numerous  estates  and  villas  in  the  govern- 
ment of  Tver.  In  private  life  he  was  an 
exemplary  father  and  husband.  His  spacious 
and  beautiful  house  in  Moscow,  which  was 
really  a  palace,  was  managed  with  the  order 


Things   Seen  in   Russia 

and  punctuality  of  a  large  business  or  factory. 
Everyone  had  his  appointed  duty,  and  it 
had  to  be  done,  without  fail,  or  the  delin- 
quent took  his  departure.  The  peasant- 
merchant  in  question,  who  was  a  great 
Churchman,  had  enormous  faith  in  the 
efficiency  of  prayer  and  fasting.  Although 
he  would  not  scruple  to  tell  a  hundred  lies 
in  a  business  transaction,  he  would  almost 
sooner  die  than  eat  anything  forbidden 
during  Lent,  or  during  the  principal  fasts 
ordained  by  the  Orthodox  Church. 

Attached  to  his  house  was  a  miniature 
church  or  chapel,  which  was  a  perfect  blaze 
of  costly  ikons  and  silver  candlesticks.  On 
Sundays,  high-days,  and  holidays,  the  whole 
family,  attired  in  long  black  stoles,  would 
adjourn  to  this  beautiful  chapel  and  pass 
a  large  part  of  the  day  in  praying,  chanting, 
and  making  deep  obeisances  to  the  Saints, 
while,  at  the  same  time,  they  kept  repeating 
the  prayer,  GospodinPomeelee  Nas!  (The  Lord 
have  mercy  upon  us  !).  It  is  almost  unneces- 
sary to  add  that  these  were  "  old  believers  " — 
a  Russian  sect  which  is  fanatically  attached 


THE    INTERIOR    OF    THE    CATHEDRAL    OF    THE    SAVIOUR. 

The  Cathedral  of  Christ  the  Saviour  was  erected  between  1837  a°d  1883,  in 
memory  of  the  deliverance  of  Moscow  from  the  French  in  1812.  This 
enormous  cathedral  is  one  of  the  most  costly  and  beautiful  edifices  in 
Europe. 


White-stoned  Moscow 

to  the  old  rites  and  observances  of  the  Greek 
Church. 

When  not  engaged  in  fasting  and  praying, 
they  appeared  to  pass  their  time  in  paying 
visits,  sledging,  dancing,  and  tea-drinking ; 
for  tea-drinking  in  Russia  seems  to  be  almost 
as  important  as  church-going.  In  the  richer 
merchant  families,  which  have  become  Euro- 
peanized,  I  noticed  there  was  very  little 
faith,  religion,  or  superstition.  They  made 
money  rapidly,  and  spent  it  on  "  wine, 
women,  and  song";  they  evidently  believed 
in  the  adage,  "  A  short  life  and  a  merry  one." 
One  family  with  which  I  stayed  actually  spent 
several  million  roubles  on  dinners,  and  in 
luxury  and  extravagance  of  every  possible 
kind.  Champagne  flowed  like  water,  and 
not  infrequently  dinners  and  suppers  were 
given  which  cost  as  much  as  £300  each. 
On  these  occasions  the  guests  ate,  drank, 
and  smoked  as  much  as  they  were  able, 
while  the  costly  wine  was  served  in  beautiful 
silver  and  gold  enamelled  cups — for  which 
the  Muscovite  craftsmen  are  so  famous. 
The  life  led  in  this  semi- aristocratic  mer- 
167 


Things   Seen  in   Russia 

chant  family  was  comparatively  loose  and 
disorderly. 

Among  the  upper  merchant  classes,  some 
members  of  which  have  been  ennobled,  they 
endeavour  to  ape  the  vices  and  extravagance 
of  the  old  Russian  nobility,  but  I  regret 
to  say  they  do  not  succeed  so  well  in  copying 
their  virtues  and  refinement. 

There  is  still  in  Moscow  a  small  exclusive 
class  of  Russian  nobles,  who  in  the  quiet  of 
their  old  homes — built  during  the  days  of 
Alexander  I. — or  in  the  seclusion  offered  by 
their  vast  estates,  which  they  have  possessed 
for  hundreds  of  years,  pass  their  days  in 
refined  and  ennobling  pursuits  :  in  reading, 
study,  music,  painting,  literature,  horticulture, 
and  also  in  attending  to  their  agricultural 
interests.  It  is  from  this  rich,  refined,  and 
leisured  class  that  such  men  as  Pushkin, 
Tolstoi,  Dershavin,  Lermontoff  and  Tur- 
genieff  have  come. 

The  merchant  and  professional  classes  are 

now  producing  many  eminent  men  in  every 

field  of  art,  learning  and  literature,  but  it  is 

chiefly  in  the  aristocratic  class  that  men  like 

168 


White-stoned  Moscow 

Tolstoi  and  Turgenieff  have  found  their 
origin.  Dostoyeff'sky  and  Gogol,  however, 
who  are  equally  great  in  literature,  did  not 
belong  to  the  nobility,  and  though  they 
may  not  possess  the  culture  and  refinement 
of  the  nobles,  there  is  little  doubt  that  they 
equal  them  in  genius.  According  to  many 
leading  authorities,  the  Russian  novelists  are 
the  greatest  in  the  world.  In  painting,  by 
the  way,  the  Russians  do  not  appear  to  hold 
their  own,  considering  their  gigantic  popula- 
tion, and  their  long-established  school  of  art, 
which  dates  from  the  days  of  Catherine  II. 
Some  of  the  greatest  painters  Russia  has 
produced  are  Riepin,  Vereschagin,  Avazoffsky, 
Bruloff,  Samokesh,  Benois,  Klever,  Vozno- 
sensky  and  Semeradsky,  etc. 

It  is  not  in  the  province  of  this  little  work 
to  describe  the  sights  of  Moscow.  To  do 
this  thoroughly  a  single  volume  would  not 
suffice.  For  Moscow,  despite  the  ravages  of 
plague,  pestilence,  invasions,  fire  and  famine, 
abounds  in  buildings  of  historic  interest  and 
tragic  association. 

The  most  interesting  of  all,  perhaps,  is  the 
169 


Things   Seen  in   Russia 

Kremlin,  with  its  churches,  palaces,  monas- 
teries, theatre,  mint  and  arsenal.  The 
Kremlin  is  a  "  Tower  of  London "  on  a 
gigantic  scale,  and  is  in  itself  practically  the 
heart  of  Russia.  Around  it  Russia  has 
gradually  grown  and  increased  until  it  now 
stretches  from  the  Baltic  to  the  Pacific. 

The  Kremlin  is  not  only  a  citadel,  but  a 
treasure-house,  full  of  enormous  wealth  and 
relics  of  priceless  value.  Its  possessions  have 
been  slowly  accumulated  during  many  genera- 
tions. The  churches  and  towers  of  the 
Kremlin  are  the  work  of  famous  Italian 
architects  who  in  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth 
centuries  were  invited  to  Moscow  from 
Florence  and  Venice  by  the  Tsar,  to  beautify 
his  favourite  city.  The  Cathedral  of  the 
Assumption — which  was  first  erected  by 
Ivan  Kolita,  the  clever  Tsar,  who  outwitted 
the  Tartars — owes  its  present  existence  to 
Aristotle  of  Florence.  The  same  architect 
also  built  the  beautiful  castellated  walls  of 
the  Kremlin,  which  have  withstood  many 
terrible  sieges  by  Tartars,  Mongols,  and  Poles. 

The  famous  Cathedral  of  the  Assumption 
170 


Stereo  Copyright,  Undenvood  &•  U.  London  &  NewYork. 

THE    ANCIENT    WALLS    OP    THE    KREMLIN. 

The  most  interesting  portion  of  Moscow  perhaps  is  the  Kremlin,  with  its 
churches,  palaces,  monasteries,  theatre,  mint,  and  arsenal.  It  was  in  a 
circular  space  (called  the  "  Lobnoe  mjesto")  opposite  the  red  gate  of  the 
Kremlin,  where  Ivan  the  Terrible  roasted,  burned,  boiled  alive,  and  tortured 


his  supposed  enemies. 


White-stoned  Moscow 

(Oospenija)  was  twice  plundered,  first  by  the 
Poles  and  then  by  the  French.  In  181  %  the 
French  carried  off  325  poods  of  silver  and 
18  poods  of  gold  ornaments  and  valuable 
treasure  (i.e.,  105  hundredweights  of  silver 
and  720  pounds  of  gold).  Part  of  this 
plunder  was  recovered  by  the  hardy  and 
fanatical  Cossacks,  who  harried  Napoleon^s 
army  night  and  day  until  it  was  utterly 
destroyed.  A  large  portion  of  the  silver 
and  gold  is  now  in  the  Kazan  Cathedral  of 
St.  Petersburg,  where  it  has  been  converted 
into  a  beautiful  reredos  of  many  tons  in 
weight.  Another  portion  of  the  plunder, 
including  the  great  gilded  cross  of  the 
Tower  of  Ivan  the  Great,  according  to  the 
memoirs  of  Count  de  Segur,  was  abandoned 
by  the  retreating  French  and  thrown  with 
other  booty  into  a  small  lake  on  the  line  of 
march.  This  treasure  is  still  said  to  be  at 
the  bottom  of  the  lake,  and  sooner  or  later 
attempts  will  be  made  to  recover  it. 

Among  the  holy  treasures  preserved  in  the 
Church  of  the  Assumption  is  a  very  ancient 
ikon  taken  from  Byzantium  and  believed  to 
173 


Things   Seen  in   Russia 

be  the  work  of  the  Apostle  Luke,  who, 
according  to  tradition,  was  not  only  a 
physician,  but  also  a  painter. 

It  would  need  a  whole  library  to  enumerate 
all  the  wonderful  miracles  and  cures  that 
have  been  effected  by  ikons.  It  is  sufficient 
to  say  that  the  Russian  peasant  and  peasant- 
merchant  have  as  great  a  faith  in  the 
miraculous  powers  of  ikons,  relics,  and 
crucifixes  as  our  ancestors  had  in  the  Middle 
Ages,  prior  to  the  Reformation.  If  one 
wishes  to  understand  the  mind  of  the  Russian 
peasants,  his  ideals  and  outlook  on  life,  we 
must  not  turn  to  books  of  travel  or  to  the 
works  of  modern  novelists,  but  instead 
study  the  works  of  William  Langland  and 
Chaucer.  There,  in  the  description  of  the 
pious  monks,  hermits,  nuns,  priests,  holy 
friars,  the  miracles  and  the  pilgrimages, 
you  have  a  true  picture  of  the  rural  Russia 
of  to-day. 

Human  nature  is  human   nature   every- 
where, an(J  it  does  not  change — the  coarse, 
brutal  minds  worship  brute  force  ;  the  refined 
and  cultured,  refinement  and  gentleness. 
174 


Stereo  Copyright,  Underwood  &  U.  London  &  New  York. 

CATHEDRAL    OF    BASIL    THE    BLESSED. 

This  remarkable  church  was  built  by  an  Italian  architect,  about  1554, 
whose  eyes  Ivan  the  Terrible  is  alleged  to  have  put  out,  so  that  he  should 
not  erect  another  building  similar.  It  did  not  please  Napoleon,  who  ordered 
it  to  be  blown  up. 


White-stoned  Moscow 

A  remarkable  church,  full  of  terrible 
memories,  is  the  Cathedral  of  Vasilii  (Basil) 
the  Blessed,  built  by  an  Italian  architect  to 
please  that  awful  monster  of  iniquity,  Ivan 
the  Terrible.  But  strange  to  say,  this 
terrible  man,  like  our  own  King  John — 
"  Merry  King  John,"  or  "  Good  King  John  " 
— was  admired  if  not  loved  by  the  common 
people,  who  seem  to  love  that  which  inspires 
them  with  fear. 

It  is  said  that  Ivan  the  Terrible  was  so 
pleased  with  the  Italian  architect  who  built 
the  Cathedral  of  St.  Basil  the  Blessed,  that 
he  first  embraced  him  for  erecting  it  after 
his  fancy  ;  but  fearing  he  might  build  another 
such  atrocity  for  some  rival  monarch,  coolly 
ordered  his  executioners  to  burn  out  his 
eyes !  This  was  a  mild  punishment  com- 
pared with  others  he  inflicted  on  his  own 
favoured  subjects,  whom  he  frequently 
hanged,  quartered,  and  impaled  in  the  great 
Red  Square  before  the  Red  Gate. 

Tastes  differ  in  architecture  as  in  other 
things.  Napoleon,  with  his  fine  classic  in- 
stincts, when  he  first  saw  Ivan  the  Terrible's 
177 


Things  Seen  in  Russia 

"  nightmare/''  as  I  have  heard  it  called, 
gave  the  laconic  order :  "  Blow  up  that 
mosque !" 

His  sappers  did  attempt  to  blow  up  the 
Gate  of  the  Saviour,  overlooking  the  Red 
Square.  The  fuse,  however,  would  not 
burn,  and  thus  this  beautiful  specimen  of 
Florentine  architecture  was  saved,  as  well  as 
the  spire  and  clock  surmounting  it.  This 
clock  was  the  work  of  an  Englishman  named 
Galloway  or  Hallo  way. 

On  entering  the  Holy  Gate,  which  leads 
direct  into  the  Kremlin,  everyone  is  expected 
to  take  off  his  hat  in  deference  to  the  holy 
and  miraculous  ikon  of  the  Saviour  over  the 
archway.  If  you  should  fail  in  this  act  of 
reverence,  then  woe  betide  you  !  For  some 
zealous  champion  of  the  true  faith,  or  the 
superstitious  sentry  on  guard,  will  knock  it 
off  for  you,  or  perhaps  you  may  fare  even 
worse. 

On  beholding  the  massive  battlements  and 
walls  of  the  Kremlin,  one  cannot  refrain 
from  thinking  how  often  their  bases  have 
been  drenched  with  torrents  of  human  blood, 


Copyright  Stereo,  H.  C.  White  Co.  London. 

THE    BEAUTIFUL    GARDENS    AND    WALLS    OP    THE    KREMLIN. 

With  a  view  of  the  Cathedral  of  Christ  the  Saviour,  erected  between  1837- 
and  1883  in  memory  of  the  delivery  of  Moscow  from  the  French  in  1812. 
The  Cathedral  of  the  Saviour  is  considered  one  of  the  finest  examples  of 
Byzantine  architecture  in  Europe. 


White-stoned  Moscow 

and  how  the  now  peaceful  and  sunlit  air  has 
been  rent  by  the  shrieks  of  the  wounded  and 
the  dying.  When  one  remembers  that  the 
Kremlin  has  been  taken  three  times,  and 
once  by  the  dreaded  Tartar,  Khan  Toch- 
tamish,  one  can  picture  to  oneself  what  its 
white-stoned  walls  have  witnessed.  On  this 
occasion  the  fear  inspired  by  the  Tartars 
was  so  great  that  the  terrified  Muscovites 
thronged  madly  into  the  Kremlin  through 
the  Gate  of  the  Saviour  in  three  separate 
tiers,  walking  over  the  heads  of  one  another 
in  their  eagerness  to  escape  death. 

Who  would  have  thought  that  these 
beautiful  churches  and  monasteries,  now  full 
of  devout  worshippers  and  venerable  priests, 
were  converted  by  the  unbelieving  French 
into  stables  in  1812 !  But  according  to  the 
Russian  Chronicles  :  "  God  soon  put  an  end 
to  all  this  !  In  the  night  of  the  3rd  Sep. 
tember,  a  flame  arose  over  Moscow !"  We 
know  the  sequel,  and  the  heroic  and  terrible 
fate  of  the  Grand  Army,  with  its  600,000 
soldiers. 

It  is  now  a  hundred  years  since  Napoleon 
181 


Things   Seen   in   Russia 

quitted  Moscow,  but  that  great  event  still 
lives  in  the  minds  of  thinking  men. 

The  Russians  will  never  forget  October  12, 
when  they  were  finally  delivered  from  the 
"  Twelve  Tongues,"  the  strange  name  they 
give  for  the  twelve  nationalities  comprising 
the  Grand  Army. 

A  remarkable  and  historic  building,  which 
the  traveller  must  not  forget,  is  the  Church 
of  the  Archangels,  the  burial-place  of  the 
Muscovite  Tsars  from  Ivan  Kalita  (Ivan  the 
Purse)  to  Ivan  Alexsevitch,  the  brother  of 
Peter  the  Great. 

The  Church^of  the  Annunciation  (Blagov- 
schensky  Sobor),  with  its  nineteen  gilded 
cupolas  often  blazing  in  the  sunlight,  is  also 
worth  a  visit,  especially  as  all  the  Muscovite 
Tsars  from  time  immemorial  have  been 
married  in  this  quaint  and  ancient  edifice. 

The  smaller  Church  of  the  Saviour-on- 
the-Hill  (Spas-na-Gora)  is  the  oldest  and 
archaeological ly  the  most  interesting  sacred 
building  in  the  Kremlin  ;  while  the  highest, 
and;  probably  the  most  unique,  is  the  enor- 
mous tower,  or  belfry,  of  Ivan  the  Great 
182 


White-stoned  Moscow 

(Ivan  Veleike).  It  was  erected  by  Boris 
Goodunoff,  the  murderer  of  the  Tsarevitch 
Dmitry,  and  the  Tartar  usurper  of  the 
throne  of  Ivan  the  Terrible.  It  reaches  a 
height  of  260  feet,  and  formerly  contained 
a  bell  which  weighed  200  tons.  During 
a  great  fire  this  enormous  bell  fell  from  the 
belfry  and  was  broken.  No  attempts  have 
since  been  made  to  recast  it ;  it  was  found 
to  be  far  too  heavy  for  the  purpose  for 
which  it  was  originally  intended. 

The  Russians  are  inordinately  fond  of 
bells  and  bell-ringing.  Some  of  the  finest 
bells  in  the  world  are  cast  in  Russia,  especi- 
ally at  Jaroslaff.  If  one  delights  in  bell- 
ringing,  one  need  only  go  and  spend  a  week 
in  Moscow  during  the  great  festivals  of  the 
Church.  There  are  bells  of  every  kind  and 
description,  both  big  and  little,  banging 
and  clanging,  ringing  and  singing,  without 
rhythm  or  harmony.  A  perfect  pandemonium 
is  produced  when,  in  addition  to  the  bells, 
the  great  cannon  of  the  Kremlin  are  fired  ; 
one  is  reminded  of  Tchaikoffsky's  symphony 
"  1812,"  which  was  inspired  by  the  remark- 

183  H 


Things   Seen   in   Russia 

able  scene  that  takes  place  every  Easter  at 
the  Kremlin,  when  the  long  and  severe 
Lenten  fast  comes  to  an  end.  Then  Moscow, 
tired  of  sackcloth  and  ashes,  fasting  and 
prayer,  awakes  with  new  animation.  Life 
again  is  sweet  and  enjoyable,  and  no  longer  a 
vale  of  tears,  but  a  pleasant  banqueting-hall, 
or  valley  of  delight,  for  the  time  being.  The 
strict  diet  prescribed  during  the  fast  is  for- 
gotten, and  the  flesh-pots  of  Egypt,  in- 
cluding pastry,  curds,  and  cakes,  are  washed 
down  with  strong  drink  or  refreshing  glasses 
of  tea  and  lemon.  Hot  pancakes,  swimming 
in  melting  butter,  and  inlaid  with  fresh 
caviare  from  Astrachan,  are  devoured  in 
piles,  accompanied  with  plentiful  libations 
of  wine,  vodka,  and  Tcvass.  Everyone  eats 
his  fill,  for  if  you  do  not  stuff  yourself  like  a 
Strasburg  goose,  with  pancakes,  zakooska, 
and  various  other  delicacies,  your  hosts  are 
offended,  and  think  you  wish  to  slight  them. 
These  are  grand  times  for  those  lucky 
mortals  favoured  with  the  digestion  of  an 
ostrich.  But  for  ordinary  beings  they  are 
extremely  trying.  The  doctors  and  apothe- 
184 


THE    BELL-MARKET    AT    NISHNI-NOVGOROD. 

The  Russians  are  very  proud  of  their  bells.     Some  of  the  largest  and  finest 
bells  in  the  world  are  to  be  found  in  Russia. 


White-stoned   Moscow 

caries,  however,  bless  the  happy  Easter 
holidays  ;  for  directly  they  are  over  they 
are  crowded  with  patients  and  customers, 
all  begging  to  be  freed  from  the  maladies 
of  their  own  creation.  Many  die  ;  but  what 
is  to  be  done  ?  They  have  but  obeyed  a 
good  old  custom,  and  it  is  the  will  of  God 
they  should  die,  and  that  is  all ! 

In  addition  to  the  churches,  the  monas- 
teries and  palaces  deserve  visiting ;  but  there 
are  so  many  that  it  is  impossible  to  describe 
them.  The  Tchoodoff  Monastery,  founded 
in  1865,  was  sacked  by  the  u  ungodly 
French,"  to  whom,  in  Russia,  nothing  was 
sacred.  It  is  a  picturesque  pile. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  palaces  in  the 
Kremlin  is  the  Ooroosheny  Palat  (Palace 
of  Arms).  The  Imperial  Regalia,  the  Cap 
of  Vladimir  Monomach,  presented  by  the 
Emperor  of  Byzantium  in  the  tenth  century, 
the  orb,  the  sceptre,  the  sword,  the  Imperial 
standard,  and  all  the  Imperial  crowns  and 
robes,  are  lodged  here,  together  with  one  of 
the  finest  collections  of  arms  and  armour  in 
the  world. 


Things   Seen  in   Russia 

Outside  of  this  palace,  ranged  along  the 
walls,  stand  the  1,400  brass  and  iron  cannon 
taken  from  the  Grand  Army  during  its 
fearful  retreat  from  Moscow. 

Napoleon  failed,  but  the  ideas  of  freedom, 
equity,  and  justice  which  he  spread  broad- 
cast over  Europe  have  borne  fruit.  When 
Napoleon  entered  Moscow  and  declared  the 
Russian  people  free,  men  and  women  were 
then  being  sold  at  6  roubles  apiece,  the  price 
of  a  stuffed  fox.  Half  a  century  passed 
before  this  great  injustice  to  humanity  was 
done  away  with  by  the  noble  and  humane 
Alexander  II.  His  temerity  cost  him  his 
life  ;  those  who  had  been  embittered  and 
ruined  by  his  great  reforms  never  forgave 
him.  But  he  did  not  live  in  vain,  and  the 
beautiful  monument  erected  in  the  Kremlin 
to  his  memory  recalls  the  great  work  of  the 
Tsar  Emancipator. 

In  fifty  years  a  nation  cannot  break  off 
the  fetters  which  have  bound  it  for  cen- 
turies ;  not  only  the  body  must  be  emanci- 
pated, but  the  soul  also.  The  soul  of  the 
Russian  people  is  gradually  being  emanci- 
188 


White-stoned  Moscow 

pated  and  springing  into  life.  The  great 
nation  of  112,000,000  peasants  is  slowly, 
but  surely,  finding  a  voice,  and,  when 
it  does,  the  astonished  people  of  Europe 
will  be  conscious  of  a  new  force  whose 
very  existence  they  never  dreamed  of. 
We  have  heard  much  about  aristocratic, 
autocratic,  and  military  Russia  ;  but  the 
greatest  Russia  of  all — peasant  Russia — has 
still  to  play  its  part  in  history. 

RAILWAY  TRAVELLING  IN  RUSSIA. 

There  is  probably  no  country  in  Europe 
where  railway  travelling  is  so  cheap  as  in 
Russia.  For  about  £1  10s.  one  can  travel 
about  4,000  miles,  first-class ;  for  £4<  10s. 
the  same  distance  second-class,  and  for  dtJB 
as  far  third-class.  In  fact,  as  an  Irishman 
might  put  it,  "  The  further  you  travel  the 
less  it  costs  you,"  and  so  it  does,  in  a  sense ; 
but  I  might  as  well  add  that  third-class 
travelling  in  Russia  is  dear  at  any  price,  on 
account  of  the  stifling  atmosphere  of  the 
carriages  and  the  undesirable  and  lively 
189 


Things   Seen   in   Russia 

company  of  all  kinds  frequently  to  be  met 
there,  especially  those  that  never  pay  their 
fare ! 

Thanks  to  the  introduction  of  the  Zone 
Tariff  by  a  brilliant  and  accomplished  states- 
man. Count  Witte,  it  is  extremely  easy  to 
travel  the  length  and  breadth  of  Russia  for 
a  small  outlay.  Owing  to  the  existence  of 
this  system,  the  Siberian  farmers  are  able  to 
pour  their  produce  into  the  English  markets 
and  compete  with  our  farmers  on  better 
terms  than  they  can  make  with  our  own 
railway  companies.  As  a  rule,  railway 
travelling  in  Russia  is  exceedingly  slow ;  the 
Russians  are  great  believers  in  the  national 
proverb,  Techa  jed'ish  dalshe  boodesh. 
(Go  slowly  and  you  will  get  further.) 
They  object  to  being  rushed,  on  principle, 
and  it  is  a  fact  that  the  merchants  in  a 
South  Russian  town  actually  sent  in  a  com- 
plaint to  the  railway  authorities,  "because 
the  trains  suddenly  and  unexpectedly,  to 
their  great  disgust  and  surprise,  commenced 
to  run  too  punctually,  causing  them  incon- 
venience !"  Before  starting  on  a  railway 
190 


o     c  S 
« 


6-5 


White-stoned  Moscow 

journey,  they  love  to  meet  at  the  beautiful 
buffets  for  which  the  Russian  stations  are 
noted,  to  gossip  and  regale  the  inner  man 
with  Pekoe  tea  flavoured  with  lemon,  and  eat 
caviare,  meat  pies,  and  other  delicacies.  As 
a  rule,  Russian  buffets  on  the  principal  rail- 
ways surpass  anything  I  have  seen  in  England 
as  regards  cheapness  and  variety  of  food. 
This  being  the  case,  the  passenger  embraces 
every  opportunity  to  get  out  of  the  train 
and  enjoy  the  good  things  of  the  land  as  he 
passes  through  it  on  his  journey.  Most  of 
these  buffets  are  in  the  hands  of  Tartars, 
who,  when  uncontaminated  with  orthodox 
Christian  weaknesses,  are  very  honest, 
reliable,  and  temperate. 

In  order  to  obtain  a  good  idea  of  the 
enormous  extent,  agricultural  wealth,  and 
resources  of  Russia,  one  could  not  do  better 
than  travel  from  Moscow  to  Rostoff  on  the 
Don,  one  of  the  principal  ports  of  Southern 
Russia. 

The  further  you  travel  southward  from 
Moscow  you  observe  that  the  country  is 
extremely  fertile  and  productive,  quite 
193 


Things   Seen  in   Russia 

unlike  the  barren  and  rocky  governments  of 

the  North,  with   their  poor  soil  and   long 

and     dreary     winters.       The     large    fields, 

covering  many  thousands  of  acres  of  territory, 

are  a  striking  feature  of  the  landscape.    The 

whole  of  this  southern  region  appears  to  be 

extremely  sparingly   supplied    with   forests, 

which  have  evidently  long  ago  been  cut  down 

by  the  ignorant  and  improvident  peasantry. 

After  a   while  this  scenery  becomes  very 

monotonous  and  exceedingly  uninteresting, 

and  apparently  as  flat  as  a  billiard  table. 

The    traveller    passes    a    great    number    of 

Russian   churches,    with    their    cream -white 

walls  and  green  cupolas.     From  the  railway 

carriage  the  peasants  are  distinctly  seen  in 

the  fields  dressed  in  their  red  blouses,  busy 

ploughing   the   land  or  leading   the  cattle 

home. 

Shortly  after  leaving  Moscow  for  the 
South,  the  traveller  reaches  the  thriving 
industrial  town  of  Toula,  famous  for  its 
manufacture  of  samovars,  small-arm  factories 
and  cutlery.  It  is  frequently  called  the 
"  Birmingham  of  Russia,"  but  I  must  confess 
194 


White-stoned  Moscow 

I  have  no  very  high  opinion  of  the  quality 
of  its  small-arms,  judging  from  the  wretched 
specimen  of  a  revolver  I  purchased  when  last 
passing  through  this  town.  It  was  cheaply 
and  carelessly  made,  and  did  not  possess  that 
finish  one  finds  in  English  and  American 
weapons. 

The  Russian  workman  is  generally  very 
intelligent  and  works  cheaply  ;  but  he  is  so 
extremely  careless  that  he  has  to  be  care- 
fully watched  at  his  work.  With  him 
everything  is  netchevo,  and  this  quality  of 
netchevoism — if  I  may  so  term  it — is  too 
often  seen  in  his  work.  Netchevo  is  a 
favourite  Russian  expression,  and  means 
"  nothing,"  "  never,"  "  all  the  same,"  "  good, 
bad,  wretched,"  according  to  the  stress  and 
intonation  one  puts  on  the  word.  It  is  on 
this  account  one  of  the  most  convenient 
words  in  any  language. 

The  traveller  in  Russia  is  lost  in  astonish- 
ment at  the  perfect  English  spoken  by  many 
members  of  the  Russian  aristocracy.  I  have 
frequently  met  Russian  Princes  and  noblemen 
who  speak  our  language  as  well  as  many 
195 


Things   Seen  in   Russia 

English,  and  far  better  than  the  majority. 
There  is  not  the  least  doubt  that  the  Russians 
have  peculiar  aptitude  for  languages  ;  but  I 
believe  their  proficiency  is  more  due  to  their 
system  of  teaching  than  to  any  special 
talent ;  for  I  have  observed  that  Englishmen, 
when  brought  up  in  Russia  under  the 
same  educational  methods  obtaining  among 
Russian  upper  and  middle  classes,  are  equally 
proficient  at  languages.  As  the  English  are 
such  a  very  mixed  race,  they  ought  to  be 
good  linguists,  and  I  believe  they  would  be 
if  they  would  give  languages  the  same  serious 
thought  and  application  as  they  do  on  the 
Continent. 

The  further  one  travels  south  from  Moscow, 
the  country  becomes  more  and  more  undulat- 
ing. The  people  are  almost  as  different  as 
the  scenery.  The  majority  of  the  men  and 
women  one  meets  at  the  railway  stations 
south  of  Moscow  are  extremely  dark — almost 
as  swarthy  as  Italians.  Fair  types  are  rare, 
and  the  blue-eyed,  fair-skinned  Russians  of 
the  northern  government  are  conspicuous  by 
their  absence.  In  passing  through  this  part 
196 


White-stoned  Moscow 

of  Russia  one's  eyes  are  gladdened  by  the 
sight  of  vast  plains  covering  thousands  and 
thousands  of  acres  of  corn,  or  as  far  as 
the  eyes  can  reach  fertile  plains,  on  which 
great  herds  of  cattle  are  browsing.  This 
is  Little  Russia  the  Blessed,  the  beautiful 
Ukraine,  the  famous  land  of  the  Little 
Russians  and  Cossacks. 

If  the  Russian  mechanic  cannot  make  a 
first-class  revolver,  he  is  quite  a  genius  as 
regards  the  manufacture  of  samovars  (tea- 
urns).  Toula  alone  turns  out  from  its  work- 
shops 200,000  samovars,  probably  worth 
above  ^350,000. 

But  the  government  of  Toula  is  of  more 
interest  to  humanity  at  large  as  being  the 
scene  of  the  life  and  work  of  that  great  and 
good  man  Count  Leo  Tolstoi,  with  whom  the 
writer  lived  and  laboured  during  the  great 
famine  of  1901-2,  when,  owing  to  successive 
droughts  and  the  consequent  failure  of  the 
crops,  about  300,000  peasants  perished. 

Yasnaja  Poljana,  the  ancestral  home  of 
the  Tolstois,  is  situated  a  few  miles  from 
Toula ;  but  since  the  death  of  this  greatest 
199 


Things   Seen  in   Russia 

writer  and  philanthropist,  its  name  is 
gradually  commencing  to  be  heard  less 
and  less  on  the  lips  of  men.  In  a  few  years 
the  only  interest  it  will  possess  in  the  minds 
of  men  will  be  that  it  was  here  that  one  of 
the  greatest,  bravest,  and  most  gifted  men 
of  the  twentieth  century  was  laid  to  rest — 
Count  Leo  Nikolaievitch  Tolstoi,  the  Russian 
moujitis  friend  and  benefactor. 

Count  Tolstoi  was  not  only  the  foremost 
novelist  of  his  time,  but,  like  so  many 
Russians  of  birth  and  education,  an  accom- 
plished linguist. 


200 


-. 


R&^r^i**' 
»?>> 


Copyright  Stereo,  FT.  C.  Mitt  Co.  London. 

INTERIOR    OF    THE    CHURCH    OF    THE    NATIVITY    OF    THE    HOLY 

VIRGIN    AT    NISHNI-NOVGOROI). 

The  screen,  or  ikonostate,  is  elaborately  carved  and  gilded,  and  on  it  the 
holy  pictures  are  arranged  in  three  tiers.  The  doors  in  the  centre  called 
the  Royal  Doors,  are  heavily  gilt,  and  for  the  most  part  are  kept  closed,  but 
are  opened  at  one  part  of  the  religious  ceremony,  revealing  the  sanctuary. 


CHAPTER  V 
LITTLE  RUSSIA  THE  BLESSED 

WHAT  would  Russia  be  without  Little 
Russia  ?  It  would  be  England  shorn 
of  all  that  beautiful  land  south  of  the 
Thames,  for  Little  Russia,  the  Crimea,  and 
the  Caucasus  are  the  garden  of  the  Tsar's 
dominions.  The  climate  of  this  portion  of 
Russia  proper  is,  comparatively  speaking, 
soft  and  temperate,  while  the  black  soil 
(tchernyzem),  which  gives  its  name  to  the 
whole  belt  of  land  south  of  the  Volga  to  the 
Carpathians,  is  fertile  beyond  belief.  All 
that  is  wanted  to  make  this  vast  territory 
"blossom  like  the  rose"  is  water  and  the 
labour  of  man ;  for  there,  thanks  to  the 
mysterious  agency  of  air,  soil,  and  the  hot 
summer  sun,  everything  grows  in  plenty ; 
birds,  game,  cattle,  and  fish  are  also  found  in 
abundance. 

203 


Things   Seen  in   Russia 

Unlike  Great  Russia,  with  its  sombre  pine 
forests  and  its  villages  of  log-huts,  often 
destitute  of  any  foliage  to  beautify  them,  the 
villages  in  Little  Russia,  with  their  clean 
white  thatched  cottages,  surrounded  by  fruit 
gardens  and  stately  poplars,  present  a  beauti- 
ful and  idyllic  picture.  These  villages  are 
generally  dotted  along  the  banks  of  the 
great  rivers — the  Dnieper,  the  Don,  the 
Dniester,  and  their  many  tributaries — or 
glistening  at  night  like  miniature  light- 
houses on  the  steep  sides  of  the  Steppes. 

In  the  autumn,  wherever  one  wanders  in 
this  much-favoured  region,  the  air  seems 
filled  with  the  odour  of  hay,  wheat,  and  other 
cereals,  which  grow  in  abundance.  The 
fields  of  sunflowers  are  a  peculiar  feature 
of  Little  Russian  scenery.  The  sunflower 
seed  in  Russia  has  numerous  uses.  It  is  not 
only  used  for  feeding  chickens,  but  the  rich 
oil — squeezed  from  the  seed — is  used  for 
food,  and  also  for  illuminating  purposes. 
Again,  the  seeds  are  used  as  nuts,  and  when 
the  Little  Russian  has  nothing  better  to  do, 
he  spends  his  time  chewing  them.  But,  as  a 
204 


Little  Russia  the  Blessed 

rule,  his  favourite  pipe  is  his  main  diversion  ; 
for  the  Little  Russians  are  inveterate  smokers. 
It  was,  in  fact,  a  Little  Russian  Hetman, 
who,  while  in  Turkey,  became  so  infatuated 
with  Lady  Nicotine  that  he  exchanged  his 
turbulent  wife  for  a  pipe  and  a  leaf  of 
tobacco. 

It  was  another  Hetman,  Taras  Bulba, 
described  in  the  glowing  pages  of  Gogol, 
who  lost  his  life  for  the  sake  of  his  pipe 
—  when  the  angry  Poles  were  in  hot 
pursuit. 

Who  can  forget — if  he  "  hath  music  in  his 
soul " — those  wonderful  and  weird  moonlight 
nights,  the  songs  of  the  nightingale  among 
the  woods  and  copses  surrounding  the  peace- 
ful villages  of  Little  Russia  the  Blessed,  or 
the  healthy,  dark,  sunburnt  peasant  girls  in 
their  beautiful  embroidered  costumes,  and 
their  thick  dark  hair  decorated  with  wild 
flowers  and  gay  ribbons.  The  sweet  and 
plaintive  songs  sung  by  these  dirchat 
(maidens)  and  their  parooboJc  (swains)  in  the 
villages  and  in  the  fields  are  heard  from 
early  morn  till  eve,  for  the  robust  vitality 
207 


Things   Seen  in   Russia 

and  joy  of  living  which  fill  the  deep  breasts 
of  the  chocol  (Little  Russians)  can  only  find 
an  outlet  in  song  and  dance.  In  the  songs, 
which  are  singularly  sweet  and  quaint,  the 
peasants  not  only  recall  the  ancient  and 
stirring  history  of  the  "  Good  Old  Cossack 
Days,"  but  each  phase  of  ordinary  everyday 
life.  Some  of  the  songs  remind  one  of  old 
English  madrigals,  and  were  probably  in- 
fluenced by  the  culture  of  the  old  Court 
of  Poland,  which  in  the  fifteenth  and  six- 
teenth centuries  was  in  close  touch  with  the 
Courts  of  Italy,  England,  and  France. 

There  are  others,  however,  which  are  dis- 
tinctly original  and  written  in  a  major  key, 
like  those  of  other  nations.  This  particularly 
applies  to  some  of  the  Cossack  songs,  for  the 
Cossacks,  never  having  been  oppressed  and 
crushed  like  the  Great  Russians,  have  in 
consequence  far  livelier  music  than  their 
cousins  in  the  North. 

Little  Russia  is  a  great  place  for  holidays, 

and  forms  an  ideal  retreat  for  those  who  do 

not   believe   in   too  much   work.     In  some 

parts  of  Southern  Russia  there  are  as  many 

208 


Little   Russia  the   Blessed 

as  180  holidays  a  year,  "  when  it  is  a  sin 
to  work."''  In  North  Russia,  where  the  soil 
is  frequently  very  poor  and  the  climate  severe, 
this  zeal  for  the  worship  of  the  Saints  leads 
to  a  great  deal  of  poverty,  and  the  same 
would  be  the  case  with  Little  Russia  were  it 
not  for  the  extreme  richness  of  the  black 
earth  which  produces  everything  in  abun- 
dance. 

How  many  Saints'*  days  and  holidays  there 
are  in  Little  Russia  I  am  unable  to  say  with 
accuracy,  for  they  vary  according  to  each 
government,  and  the  piety,  or,  rather, 
superstition,  of  its  inhabitants.  But  they 
are  very  numerous,  and  so  long  as  this  is  the 
case,  the  Little  Russian  peasant,  in  company 
with  his  compatriot  in  the  northern  govern- 
ments, will  never  be  blessed  with  too  much 
of  this  world's  goods. 

The  Little  Russians  are  also  noted  for 
their  great  faith  in  Christ  and  the  Saints, 
although  it  must  be  confessed  that  their 
religion  is  mixed  with  a  very  plentiful  admix- 
ture of  superstition  of  the  darkest  kind, 
similar  to  that  which  obtained  in  England 
209  i 


Things   Seen  in   Russia 

and  France  during  the  Middle  Ages.  The 
following  anecdote  gives  one  a  better  idea  of 
the  confused  religious  ideas  of  the  Cossacks 
and  Little  Russian  peasantry  than  anything 
I  know : 

A  Cossack  once,  whilst  riding  alone  in  the 
country,  was  suddenly  overtaken  by  a  violent 
thunderstorm.  The  lightning  flashed  around 
him,  whilst  his  ears  were  deafened  by  the 
violent  crashes  of  thunder,  which  thrilled 
him  with  superstitious  terror.  "Holy  St. 
Nicholas,  great,  holy,  dear  St.  Nicholas!" 
he  prayed,  "  my  beloved  patron,  save  me  in 
my  dire  need,  and  I  will  give  you  as  many 
candles  as  I  can  get  for  this  horse  I  am  now 
riding  on !" 

The  patron  Saint,  influenced  by  this 
generous  offer,  protected  the  Cossack  from 
the  dangers  that  encircled  him. 

On  the  following  day  our  friend  the 
Cossack  "was  seen  busy  in  the  market-place. 
He  was  leading  a  horse  by  the  bridle,  and 
carrying  a  cock  under  his  arm. 

46 What  are  you  selling,  Cossack?"  inquired 
the  people. 

210 


Little  Russia  the  Blessed 

"  A  cock  and  a  horse,"  he  replied.  "  But 
I  will  not  sell  one  without  the  other." 

"  How  much  do  you  want  for  them  ?" 
inquired  a  would-be  purchaser. 

"  I  want  200  roubles  for  the  cock,  but  you 
shall  have  the  horse  for  30  copecks  (6d.). 

The  Cossack  soon  found  a  buyer,  and, 
faithful  to  his  promise,  he  went  and  pur- 
chased wax  tapers  for  30  copecks,  which,  with 
the  greatest  reverence,  he  lighted  before  the 
ikon  of  the  holy  St.  Nicholas.  It  thus 
appears  that  a  Cossack  will  not  only  en- 
deavour to  cheat  the  devil,  but  even  his 
patron  Saint,  should  he  have  the  chance ! 

On  holidays  and  Saints'  days  in  Little 
Russia  everyone  is  astir  early,  either  going 
to  church  or  returning  from  the  sacred 
edifice.  The  men  and  women  dress  in  their 
beautiful  embroidered  costumes,  and  make 
the  most  of  the  occasion. 

The  young  men  are  not  to  be  outdone  by 
the  maidens,  and  are  to  be  seen  in  groups, 
swaggering  about  in  their  black  velvet 
trousers,  tucked  into  their  polished  top- 
boots.  They  also  wear  beautiful  linen  shirts 
213 


Things   Seen  in   Russia 

or  blouses,  gaily  decorated  with  flowers, 
stars,  and  other  designs,  embroidered  in 
cross-stitch  work.  On  their  heads  the  men 
usually  don  a  high  sheepskin  cap  made  of 
Astrachan  or  Karikool  wool.  A  red  silk  or 
cotton  sash  encircles  the  waists  of  these 
South  Russian  dandies,  and  with  the  tassels 
of  their  sashes  gaily  hanging  from  the  side, 
they  look  both  attractive  and  rakish. 

In  appearance  the  Little  Russians,  who 
number  about  12,000,000  souls,  are  entirely 
unlike  the  Great  Russians.  They  are  usually 
much  taller,  averaging  about  from  5  feet 
8  inches  to  6  feet.  They  have  mostly  round 
heads,  dark  complexions,  brown  eyes,  and 
long  straight  noses,  whilst  the  typical  Great 
Russian,  the  man  who  has  made  the  Russian 
Empire  what  it  is,  is  of  medium  stature,  fair- 
haired  and  blue-eyed,  with  ruddy  or  fair 
complexion.  The"  Little  Russians  delight  in 
shaving  their  beards,  and  love  to  wear  a 
long,  heavy  moustache  pointing  downwards. 
Shefshenko,  the  poet,  and  the  late  Prince 
Bismarck — who  was  probably  of  Vendish  or 
Slavonic  origin,  like  so  many  Prussians — were 
214 


Little  Russia  the   Blessed 

typical  Little  Russians  in  appearance.  It  is 
on  these  bullet-headed,  bull-necked  Little 
Russians,  who  have  for  centuries  supplied 
the  main  contingent  to  the  Cossack  legions 
of  the  Tsar,  and  who  have  now  spread  from 
the  banks  of  the  peaceful  Don  to  the  Pacific, 
that  the  task  of  maintaining  order  in  the 
Tsar's  dominions  devolves. 

According  to  the  Great  Russians,  the 
Little  Russian  is  remarkable  for  his  laziness 
and  inertness.  One  of  their  proverbs  states 
that  the  Khochol  (Little  Russian)  and  the 
ox  are  two  brothers.  But  this  comparison 
is  hardly  fair,  for  when  we  think  of  the 
great  extremes  of  the  climate  of  Little 
Russia — the  intense  cold  of  their  winters  and 
the  fearful  heat  of  their  summer  months — 
we  can  hardly  call  the  Khochol  lazy. 

As  soon  as  the  weather  permits,  the  Little 
Russian  is  seen  at  his  work,  ploughing  the 
heavy  fields  with  his  three  pairs  of  oxen,  for 
the  black  earth  of  Little  Russia  is  so  heavy 
that  it  requires  a  deep  and  heavy  plough  to 
work  it.  But  the  soil,  though  so  hard  to 
till,  is  exceedingly  productive,  and  amply 
215 


Things   Seen  in   Russia 

repays  the  farmer  for  the  labour  he  puts 
into  it. 

As  soon  as  the  snow  melts  in  the  spring, 
which  is  a  month  earlier  than  in  Northern 
Russia,  you  will  see  the  Little  Russian,  from 
dawn  till  eve,  busy  sowing  his  fields  with 
peas,  beans,  clover,  garlic,  barley,  oats,  wheat, 
rye,  tobacco,  and  many  other  plants,  which 
in  Little  Russia  grow  in  the  greatest  abun- 
dance. All  the  above-mentioned  plants  and 
cereals  have  to  be  sown  on  certain  Saints'* 
days,  and  often  in  conjunction  with  various 
heathen  ceremonies  and  incantations : 
"  otherwise  the  yield  will  not  be  plentiful." 

Although  the  Little  Russians  may  appear 
heavy  in  their  movements,  like  oxen,  they 
are,  nevertheless,  exceedingly  industrious, 
when  once  they  make  up  their  minds  to 
work.  From  sunrise  to  sunset  in  the  summer 
you  can  see  them  busy  labouring  in  the 
fields,  and  in  the  autumn  busy  reaping  with 
heavy  scythes,  almost  without  rest  or  inter- 
ruption. In  order  to  wield  a  scythe  from 
sunrise  to  sunset,  with  only  a  few  short 
intervals  for  rest,  when  they  drink  vodki  and 
216 


Copyright  Stereo,  H.  C.  ll'hite  Co.  London. 

"  TSAB-KOLOKOL  "    (THE    TSAR    OF    BELLS)    AT    THE    FOOT    OF    THE 

TOWER    OF    IVAN    THE    GREAT. 

The  "  Tsar  Kolokol"  weighs  about  12,000  poods  (circ.  200  tons).  It  was 
cast  in  1735,  but  broken  during  a  fire  in  1737,  when  the  tower  on  which  it 
was  hung  was  seriously  damaged.  In  falling  fron}  the  tower  it  was  broken, 
and  never  recast. 


Little  Russia  the  Blessed 

eat  some  rye  bread  with  garlic  or  cucumber, 
they  must  indeed  be  like  oxen  as  regards 
strength  and  endurance. 

During  the  harvest-time  the  yield  is  so 
plentiful  and  labour  so  scarce  that  almost 
every  man,  woman,  or  child  who  can  be  made 
use  of  is  summoned  to  assist  in  gathering 
the  rich  yield  of  rye,  wheat,  oats,  buckwheat, 
barley,  millet,  and  other  cereals,  which  forms 
the  reward  of  the  agriculturist. 

It  frequently  happens,  however,  that  the 
harvest  is  so  abundant  and  the  labourers  so 
few  that  it  has  to  rot  in  the  fields.  In 
order  to  remedy  this  evil,  about  150,000  to 
200,000  reapers  (komre)  go  south  from  the 
northern  governments  every  year  to  help  to 
gather  in  the  rich  harvest  of  Little  Russia 
the  Bountiful. 

These  workmen  travel  enormous  distances 
in  special  trains  at  ridiculously  low  fares, 
probably  cheaper  than  in  any  country  in 
Europe ;  for  the  Russian  working  classes 
cannot  afford  the  luxury  of  such  high  fares 
as  in  England  and  France.  In  fact,  the  fares 
in  Russia  are  so  very  low,  since  the  introduc- 
219 


Things   Seen   in   Russia 

tion  of  the  zone  tariffs,  that  it  is  ahead  of 
the  rest  of  Europe  as  regards  cheapness  of 
railway  travelling. 

But  to  return  to  Little  Russia.  The  field 
work  generally  continues  throughout  June, 
July,  and  August,  when  it  is  time  to  gather 
in  the  enormous  crops  of  water-melons  and 
pumpkins  which  grow  in  this  favoured 
country  in  the  open  air  with  the  same 
profusion  as  turnips  and  mangel -wurzels  do 
in  England.  Melons  and  water-melons  are 
so  cheap  that  they  can  be  purchased  for  2d. 
a  couple,  and  grapes  at  a  Id.  a  pound. 
Thousands  of  tons  of  tobacco  of  every 
quality,  ranging  from  the  cheapest  machorka 
to  the  finest  Turkish,  is  also  grown  in  South 
Russia  and  the  Caucasus. 

The  crops  of  Indian  corn  and  beetroot 
must  also  not  be  forgotten,  without  speaking 
of  the  acres  upon  acres  of  grapes,  which,  after 
being  pressed,  are  converted  into  wine,  and 
ultimately  find  their  way  to  England  in  the 
form  of  French  claret  and  Burgundy. 
(South  Russia,  the  Crimea,  and  the 
Caucasus  are  great  wine-producing  centres.) 
220 


Little  Russia  the  Blessed 

From  the  above  it  is  evident  that  agricul- 
ture in  Little  Russia  is  everything — in  fact, 
the  life  and  soul  of  this  marvellous  country, 
which,  if  properly  cultivated,  might  feed  the 
half  of  Europe. 

The  life  of  the  farmer  means  contentment, 
joy,  health,  strength,  and  sustenance  to  the 
Little  Russian,  just  as  work  in  the  vast 
forests  and  on  the  mighty  rivers  and  lakes  is 
the  ideal  of  the  Great  Russians  of  the  North. 
Agriculture  gives  the  Little  Russian  all  that 
he  desires  in  life. 

If  one  should  happen  to  enter  a  log-hut  of 
a  hardy  and  half-starved  peasant  of  Northern 
Russia,  one  would  probably  be  only  able  to 
obtain  black  bread,  cabbage  soup  (tche),  tea, 
sugar,  and  sometimes,  on  rare  occasions, 
meat,  butter,  and  eggs.  But  in  Little 
Russia,  in  this  land  of  plenty,  you  will  find 
in  the  huts  of  the  peasants  many  kinds  of 
bread,  wholesome  porridge,  milk,  bacon, 
poultry,  fish,  vegetables,  fruit,  cream,  eggs, 
and  many  other  edibles  which  are  considered 
luxuries  in  the  cold  and  bleak  governments 
of  the  North. 


Things   Seen  in   Russia 

The  Little  Russian  peasants  are  almost 
self-supporting,  not  only  as  regards  the 
necessities  of  life,  but  also  its  luxuries.  In 
the  gardens  surrounding  their  white- walled 
cottages  they  not  only  grow  fruit  and 
vegetables,  but  tobacco,  and  all  the  herbs 
they  require  either  for  culinary  purposes  or 
for  medicine.  Their  handy  and  industrious 
housewives,  who  keep  their  cottages  scrupu- 
lously clean,  make  their  own  cloth  and  linen, 
whilst  the  men  manufacture  excellent  leather 
out  of  the  skins  of  the  sheep,  cattle,  and 
goats  on  their  farms.  With  the  aid  of 
cochineal  and  various  dyes  made  from  plants 
which  grow  in  their  fields  and  gardens,  they 
colour  the  red,  yellow  and  blue  leather  they 
use  for  their  boots  and  harness. 

When  one  takes  into  consideration  the 
peculiar  climate  of  Little  Russia  and  the 
variety  and  quantity  of  the  work  carried  out 
by  the  Little  Russian  peasantry,  one  can 
hardly  call  them  idle — except  when  faced  by 
circumstances  over  which  they  have  no 
control.  As  regards  cleanliness,  they,  as 
well  as  their  cottages,  are  scrupulously  clean. 

222 


Copyright  Stereo,  If.  C.  White  Co. 


THE    TSAR    CANNON    IN    THE    KKE.1IUN. 


Little  Russia  the  Blessed 

One  reads  in  the  pages  of  Gogol  how  the 
Cossacks  of  the  past  delighted  in  wearing 
clothes  of  rich  material  and  arms  of  the 
finest  workmanship.  This  love  of  fine  clothes 
and  display  is  a  peculiar  feature  in  the 
character  of  the  Little  Russians. 

They  are  also  very  fond  of  good  living, 
and,  during  the  holidays,  which  are  so 
numerous,  their  tables  groan  with  all  kinds 
of  meat,  poultry,  soup,  meat  pies,  pancakes, 
pastries,  curds,  cream,  fruit,  preserves,  honey, 
and  many  other  luxuries. 

Throughout  the  Holy  Land  of  Roos, 
which  is  perhaps  the  most  hospitable  country 
in  Europe,  the  liberality  and  hospitality  of 
the  Little  Russians,  especially  during  their 
numerous  holidays,  stands  pre-eminent. 

As  soon  as  the  heavy  field  work  is  over, 
the  young  people  prepare  to  make  merry. 
The  young  swains  and  maidens,  attired  in 
their  brilliant  costumes,  collect  every  evening 
in  the  various  cottages  of  their  friends  in 
turns,  and  spend  the  fleeting  hours  in  dance, 
song,  and  merriment.  On  these  occasions  the 
warm-blooded  youth  of  the  Ukrain  indulge 
225 


Things   Seen   in   Russia 

in  their  wild  Cossack  dances,  frequently 
until  the  dawn  of  the  early  morn,  when  it  is 
time  to  retire  to  rest. 

Before  the  holidays,  the  old  women,  as 
well  as  the  young  housewives,  busy  themselves 
cleaning  the  cottages,  washing  and  polishing 
the  dishes,  and  cooking,  baking,  smoking, 
and  getting  everything  ready  for  the  ap- 
proaching fete. 

Christmas  is  a  season  of  special  rejoicing, 
and  the  preparations  that  are  made  for 
that  holiday,  which  is  also  called  the  "  Holy 
Eve,"  are  astonishing  to  many  of  us  luke- 
warm Christians  of  the  West,  for  whom  the 
feast  days  of  the  Church  are  but  conventional 
observances,  and  not  a  religious  necessity. 
On  these  occasions,  all  the  members  of  a 
South  Russian  household  attire  themselves 
in  their  finest  linen  apparel,  whilst  the  holy 
ikons  (obrazee)  are  gaily  dressed  with  ribbons, 
roses,  and  beautifully  embroidered  towels  with 
lace  edges.  Candles  and  tapers  of  various 
colours  are  also  placed  before  the  ikons,  before 
which  everyone  entering  a  cottage  makes  a 
deep  obeisance,  and  crosses  himself  devoutly. 
226 


Copyright  Stereo,  H.  C.  WTiite  Co.  London. 

BRIDGE    OF    BOATS    OVER    THE    OKA    AT    NISHNI-NOVGOROD. 

The  scene  of  the  largest  mediaeval  fair  in  Europe.  The  fair  begins  at  the 
end  of  July  and  finishes  about  the  middle  of  September,  and  occupies  the 
low-lying  land  between  the  Volga  and  the  Oka. 


Little  Russia  the  Blessed 

It  would  take  too  long  to  discuss  the 
numerous  and  quaint  customs  which  are 
observed  on  this  most  sacred  occasion,  but 
to  those  who  are  interested  in  the  life  of  the 
Little  Russians,  the  study  of  Gogol,  or  of 
Shefshenko,  the  poet,  would  be  instructive 
and  entertaining.  Of  these  two  great 
geniuses,  Gogol  may  well  be  compared  to 
Dickens  and  Shefshenko  to  Robert  Burns. 
Shefshenko's  sad  but  beautiful  poems  de- 
scribing his  beloved  Ukraine  are  now  being 
published  in  our  tongue. 

The  Little  Russians  are  still  living  in  the 
days  of  the  sixteenth  century,  and  if  one 
takes  up  the  pages  of  Shakespeare^s  "  Mid- 
summer Night's  Dream,"  with  their  descrip- 
tions of  fairies,  wood  sprites,  elves,  witches, 
and  hobgoblins,  one  gets  a  better  idea  of  life 
among  the  peasants  of  Little  Russia  than  in 
pages  of  modern  descriptive  matter ;  for  in 
Shakespeare's  remarkable  play  all  the  weird 
atmosphere,  the  poetry,  and  superstition  of 
that  remarkable  period  of  national  life  are 
faithfully  reflected  as  in  a  mirror. 

Although  the  South  Russians  are  Orthodox 
229 


Things   Seen  in  Russia 

Christians,  a  stranger,  on  studying  their 
quaint  superstitions  and  beliefs,  must  admit 
that  they  are  still  pagans  in  many  respects ; 
for  they  observe  most  of  the  old  customs 
that  obtained  in  Russia  among  their  Scythian, 
Sarmatian  and  Gothic  forebears.  They  greet 
the  approaching  spring  with  songs  of  surpass- 
ing beauty  and  interest,  with  games,  ring- 
dances,  and  various  quaint  ceremonies,  which 
may  have  been  introduced  among  them  by 
the  ancient  Greeks,  whose  commercial  rela- 
tions and  intercourse  with  South  Russia  before 
the  Christian  era  were  probably  far  more 
intimate  than  they  are  now.  It  must  be 
remembered  that  Little  Russia  in  those 
early  days  was  the  granary  of  Athens,  and 
the  old  Greeks,  in  return  for  their  produce, 
furnished  the  races  that  then  inhabited 
South  Russia  with  beautiful  works  of  art, 
which  are  continually  being  dug  up  in  the 
countless  tumuli  that  add  such  a  weird 
charm  to  this  strange  but  little-known 
country,  the  home  of  forgotten  races.  It  is 
astonishing  that  the  strict  observance  of  holi- 
days and  feasts  in  Little  Russia  goes  hand 
230 


Copyright  Stereo,  H.  C.  White  Co.  London. 

A    BEAUTIFUL    SPECIMEN    OF    OLD    RUSSIAN    ARCHITECTURE. 

The  house  of  the  Abbot  (Igutnen)  of  Moscow,  built  by  Pozdjeff,  a 
celebrated  Russian  architect.  The  interior  of  this  house  is  as  striking 
and  original  as  its  exterior. 


Little  Russia  the  Blessed 

in  hand  with  the  wildest  and  most  strange 
superstitions,  many  of  which  are  remarkably 
like  those  that  still  exist  in  some  parts  of 
England,  Scotland,  Wales,  and  Ireland. 

They  are  also  firm  believers  in  the 
existence  of  treasure  trove,  which  some- 
times can  only  be  found  with  the  aid  of  the 
devil,  or  one  of  his  satellites.  The  constant 
attempts  of  the  Little  Russian  peasant  to 
outwit  the  Evil  One  and  get  the  better  of 
his  wicked  machinations  is  a  perpetual 
feature  of  interest  in  Little  Russian  stories. 

In  Little  Russia  there  is  a  whole  week 
when  the  devil  and  his  entourage  play  high 
jinks  with  men  and  animals.  There  is  also 
a  week  when  the  beautiful  Roosalke  (water- 
nymphs)  lure  men  and  women  to  their 
destruction.  Then  woe  betide  the  unfor- 
tunate swain  who,  in  the  soft  moonlight, 
approaches  too  near  the  rivers  and  ponds, 
where  these  dangerous  maidens  abound ! 
Without  more  ado  they  drag  him  beneath 
the  waves  into  their  subterranean  caves  and 
palaces,  and  there  "  tickle  him  to  death," 
which  is  really  more  than  a  joke. 
233 


Things   Seen  in   Russia 

The  Roosalke,  according  to  the  Little 
Russians,  are  either  the  souls  of  those  who 
have  committed  suicide,  or  of  unbaptized 
infants.  They  are  always  extremely  beau- 
tiful, possessing  voluptuous  physical  charms, 
and  long  dishevelled  hair,  decorated  with 
jewels,  leaves,  and  flowers.  Those  who  have 
committed  suicide  have  green  locks  reaching 
below  their  knees  ! 

On  Trinity  Sunday  these  interesting  but 
dangerous  maidens  emerge  from  the  rivers 
and  lakes,  and  shamelessly  sit  on  the  banks, 
or  linger  in  the  forest  glades,  and  there  for 
a  whole  week  pass  their  time  swinging  on 
the  branches  of  trees,  combing  their  long 
hair,  singing  doleful  and  seductive  songs. 

On  the  above-mentioned  day  all  the 
witches  of  Little  Russia — and  they  are 
legion — assemble  on  the  top  of  the  Lisoi 
Hill  at  Kieff,  and  carry  on  in  a  most  dia- 
bolical manner,  just  as  they  did  on  Valpurgis 
iSight  on  the  Brocken,  in  the  presence  of 
Faust  and  that  arch  -  deceiver,  Mephisto- 
pheles. 

Not  content  with  these  shameful  proceed- 
234 


Little  Russia  the  Blessed 

ings,  they  turn  themselves  sometimes  into  a 
cat,  and  at  others  into  a  dog,  pig,  kettle, 
or  any  other  thing  they  find  handy.  Every 
now  and  then  in  South  Russian  villages  the 
report  goes  round  that  some  damsel,  who 
does  not  get  married  in  time,  has  been 
bewitched,  and  then  there  is  a  wild  hunt 
for  the  evil-doer  in  the  village  in  question ; 
for  surely  if  a  maiden  does  not  marry,  when 
that  blissful  times  comes,  she  has  been 
bewitched  by  some  rival,  who,  with  the  aid 
of  the  Evil  One^  has  cast  a  spell  on  her. 
The  culprit  on  these  occasions  is  surely  a 
witch,  and  as  witches  have  tails,  many  a 
maiden — old  and  young — suffer  considerable 
personal  inconvenience  and  indignity  before 
the  villagers  are  quite  satisfied  that  she  is 
not  the  offending  party,  and  does  not  carry 
on  her  person  the  sign  of  her  profession. 

More  terrible  than  the  witches,  who  be- 
witch unfortunate  maidens,  and  prevent 
them  marrying,  are  the  cruel  vampires 
(oopere),  their  offspring,  who  devour  the 
corpses  of  the  dead,  and  suck  the  blood  of 
the  living !  All  these  fearsome  creatures — 
235  K 


Thing 


s   Seen  in   Russia 


witches,  devils,  wood-sprites,  Roosalke,  hob- 
goblins, etc. — meet  together  in  the  forests 
on  the  night  of  St.  John,  and  then,  with 
shrieks,  yells,  and  laughter,  amid  unearthly 
noises,  hold  "  high  revelry  by  night."  On 
this  terrible  eve,  such  mortals  as  have  the 
temerity  to  risk  their  souls  and  bodies 
amongst  such  unholy  company  may  find 
untold  treasure  hidden  in  the  forest ;  but 
how  few  there  are  who  dare  run  such  awful 
risks ! 

The  marriage  and  other  customs  of  the 
Little  Russians  are  as  interesting  as  their 
quaint  superstitions.  As  a  rule,  young  married 
couples  in  Little  Russia  do  not  live  with 
their  parents,  but  each  couple  in  their  own 
little  cottage,  which,  I  •  am  told,  does  not 
cost  more  than  ten  or  fifteen  pounds  to 
build.  Land  in  this  favoured  territory  is 
also  as  cheap  as  the  houses,  and  thanks  to 
the  comparative  plenty  of  all  the  necessaries 
of  life,  it  does  not  take  much  for  a  Little 
Russian  peasant  to  start  housekeeping. 


236 


I  A  V/O1C 


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